Image of the Day - Twelve Colonies of Kobol

Both today after school while driving home as well as tonight, I find myself thinking about the destruction of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series. I feel it is a metaphor for something else as in God is using it to get me thinking about something that is anything but fictional and imaginary. I'm still pondering and discerning the meaning per the truism in Proverbs 25:2. Left-click on image for expanded view. Cartographic artwork by Werthead HERE. All rights reserved!

Quote of the Day - "Admiral Adama"

"There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people." ~ Admiral Adama (Battlestar Galactica)

I tend to be rather pro-law enforcement... even through these police shooting stories that get many Liberal's panties in a wad. I have always gotten along quite well with the constabulary even when I was getting pulled over a lot when I drove my meth-mobile-looking beater Volvo until earlier this year. They have a tough and often dangerous job to do and the haters often overlook that part of the story.

That being said, there has been a disturbing trend since 9/11 and the Homeland Security Act: the rapid militarization of our constabulary. Both Liberals and Conservatives alike as well as those from the Center like me view this with varying degrees of trepidation. This trend does not reflect any realities of crime or terrorist activity in our society. It often manifests itself in the heartland interior in even small podunkvilles. Departments of all sizes across our land are beefing up their military-styled SWAT programs and acquiring surplus military equipment like armored personnel carriers. This is driven by greed as homeland security is big business for Big Business. It is also a way for governments to get bigger because they are bureaucracies which tend to have an insatiable appetite for self-perpetuation and accumulation of money and power

However, at what point does our own constabulary no longer serve us but instead serves other agendas? Today we have Gramciian hegemony (Money Power controls indirectly and subtly through proxies and exerts force just under the surface all the while making limited concessions which the masses are content to accept). Does this arrangement metamorphose into something more malevolent down the road?

It's All Happened Before But Will It Again?

It seems only apropos that following my "The Day Of The End Of The World" post day-before-yesterday that I share this short clip as a sort of coda. These two series segments form a sort of bookend pair as they show opposite ends of the story arc for the acclaimed television series Battlestar Galactica as found at the start of the story in the other posting and then here at the conclusion of the episode "Daybreak ~ Part 3", final episode of Season Four and of the entire series. Not only does this cleverly wrap up the series and connect it to present-day Earth but also cleverly gets into some more transcendent stuff such as the nature of human civilizations to destroy themselves and the degree to which there is Free Will and/or it is all essentially predetermined by human predisposition.

The Day Of The End Of The World

My entire life I have been haunted by this theme to the depths of my soul. Here is one fictional visual account of such a day. It shows this event from the perspective of the Battlestar Galactica television series from the 2000's. We see this calamitous coda to civilization known in the series as "the Destruction of the Twelve Colonies" from three perspectives: the planet Caprica, Colonial Fleet Headquarters at Pycon, and the Battlestar Galactica itself, the last remaining survivor of about 120 capital ships of the Colonial Fleet the rest of which are destroyed in this Pearl Harbor-esque assault. Below is a musical tribute ("Journey to the Line" by Hans Zimmer) to this fictional calamity derived from both the television series' movie pilot and and its two spin-off movies "Razor" and "The Plan".
Check out the follow up posting to this which shows the series conclusion: "It's All Happened Before But Will It Again?" 

Quote of the Day - "Lee Adama"

The very best speech ever given in a television series was given in the finale of Season Three of Battlestar Galactica by actor Jamie Bamber playing  then-resigned Captain Lee Adama as a witness testifying in the treason trial of Gaius Balter played by . You can watch this passionate speech from the finale of Season Three right HERE.

"Did the defendant make mistakes? Sure. He did. Serious mistakes. But did he actually commit any crimes? Did he commit treason? No. I mean, it was an impossible situation. When the Cylons arrived, what could he possibly do? What could anyone have done?  Ask yourself, what would you have done? What would you have done? If he had refused to surrender, the Cylons would have probably nuked the planet right then and there. So did he appear to cooperate with the Cylons? Sure. So did hundreds of others. What's the difference between him and them? The President issued a blanket pardon. They were all forgiven, no questions asked. Colonel Tigh. Colonel Tigh used suicide bombers, killed dozens of people. Forgiven. Lieutenant Agathon and Chief Tyrol. They murdered an officer on the Pegasus. Forgiven. The Admiral. The Admiral instigated a military coup d'état against the President. Forgiven. And me? Well, where do I begin? I shot down a civilian passenger ship, the Olympic Carrier. Over a thousand people on board. Forgiven. I raised my weapon to a superior officer, committed an act of mutiny. Forgiven. And then on the very day when Baltar surrendered to those Cylons, I as commander of Pegasus jumped away. I left everybody on that planet, alone, undefended, for months. I even tried to persuade the Admiral never to return, to abandon you all there for good. If I'd had my way nobody would have made it off that planet. I'm the coward. I'm the traitor. I'm forgiven. I'd say we are very forgiving of mistakes. We make our own laws now; our own justice. And we've been pretty creative in finding ways to let people off the hook for everything from theft to murder. And we've had to be, because... because we're not a civilization anymore. We are a gang, and we are on the run, and we have to fight to survive. We have to break rules. We have to bend laws. We have to improvise. But not this time, no. Not this time. Not for Gaius Baltar. No, you... you have to die, because, well, because we don't like you very much. Because you're arrogant. Because you're weak. Because you're a coward, and we, the mob, want to throw you out of the airlock, because you didn't stand up to the Cylons and get yourself killed in the process. That's justice now. You should have been killed back on New Caprica, but since you had the temerity to live, we're going to execute you now. That's justice. This case... this case is built on emotion, on anger, bitterness, vengeance. But most of all, it is built on shame. It's about the shame of what we did to ourselves back on that planet. It's about the guilt of those of us who ran away. Who ran away. And we're trying to dump all that guilt and all that shame on one man and then flush him out the airlock, and hope that just gets rid of it all. So that we could live with ourselves. But that won't work. That won't work. That's not justice; not to me. Not to me."

Battlestar Portlandia Delux Redux

I posted a  partial version of this last January but here is the whole thing in its entirety and it is utterly wonderful as it includes some of the members of the cast of the landmark television series Battlestar Galactica for which it is both a tribute and a bit of a spoof. 

Most Powerful Display Of Grief Ever On TV

It is my own opinion that the following scene from the last episode of the epic and groundbreaking television series Battlestar Galactica ("Daybreak - Parts 2 & 3") is the most beautiful and heart-wrenching fictional display of grief ever achieved on television and compares favorably with the best of the big screen. This scene features President Laura Roslin played by Mary McDonnell experiencing a flashback to a scene that occurred in her life not too long prior to the events covered in the series. She experiences this flashback while in a cancer-induced coma which we realize at the end of the clip. Previous to the clip is a segment where she is indulged in a birthday party by her father and all three of her sisters all of whom leave her gifts and then head home after the visit but never make it. Grief and loss are perhaps the two most recurring themes in the entire series and the creators of the show in their writing sequence and Ms. McDonnell in her character's stoic and quietly dignified and yet ultimately incomprehensible yet perfectly understandable reaction to news of ultimate tragedy make this hard to watch and hard not to watch.

Battlestar Portlandia

NOTE: If you have not watched the recent Battlestar Galactica series then you will not appreciate the humor of this except that it does effectively convey how addicting the series is for many of its fans.

Anywho, earlier this evening my friend Mark shared this with me and I so loved it I'm sharing it here. Prior to this I was unaware of the television series Portlandia with SNL regular Fred Armison.

All Along The Watchtower

You may or may not know that my appreciation of and love for the recent Battlestar Galactica television series runs deep and is profound. The soul, wit, charm, intelligence, profundity and relevance of the show was and is nearly without peer in American television history. I do not feel that statement is hyperbole and welcome others to disagree with my assessment.

For those of you familiar with the show you are quite familiar with the presence of the Bob Dylan-created song "All Along The Watchtower" and its relevance and significance to the show down its stretch run starting at the end of Season Three and throughout Season Four (its final season). I will not explain here what the relevance to and significance of this song is in the show as either you already know or you need to watch the series anyway and in due time you will know.

Regardless, I offer you here the opportunity to study the lyrics first and then listen to and compare the two greatest versions of the song as performed by Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix to that of the version arranged by Bear McCreary and sung by his brother Brenden for Battlestar Galactica which is my favorite version of the song truth be told. On a side-note: McCreary does the musical score for my favorite current television series, The Walking Dead.

Below are the lyrics followed in order by the Brenden arrangement and performance followed by those of Jimi Hendrix (whose studio version appears in the epilogue of the series' finale Daybreak) and Bob Dylan in that order. Please feel free to comment on your preference and analysis of the three versions and the power of the song itself. 

"All Along The Watchtower"

"There must be some way out of here" said the joker to the thief
"There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth."

"No reason to get excited", the thief he kindly spoke
"There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke
But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late".

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.

Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.

Source: http://www.azlyrics.com

Quote of the Day - "The Hybrid"

There were many memorable and even haunting quotes from the "reimagined" Battlestar Galactica TV series. The single most quotable character in the series was The Hybrid (who was actually innumerable copies of the same character with each one controlling the operations of an individual Cylon Base Ship). In any case the most powerful and haunting of all The Hybrid quotes was the following message given (which appears in the the movie The Plan) as a first report back from the battlefield of the results of the massive Cylon nuclear attack on the Twelve Colonies:

Progress reports arriving. 

The farms of Aerolon are burning. 

The beaches of Canceron are burning. 

The plains of Leonis are burning. 

The jungles of Scorpia are burning. 

The pastures of Tauron are burning. 

The harbors of Picon are burning. 

The cities of Caprica are burning. 

The oceans of Aquaria are burning. 

The courthouses of Libran are burning. 

The forests of Virgon are burning. 

The Colonies of Man lie trampled at our feet.

Source: Battlestar Wiki