Hey, Mom! The Explanation.

Here's the permanent dedicated link to my first Hey, Mom! post and the explanation of the feature it contains.

Also,

Wednesday, August 14, 2024

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3466 - STAR TREK RULES!!! Hollywood's Ultimate Shared Universe



A Sense of Doubt blog post #3466 - STAR TREK RULES!!! Hollywood's Ultimate Shared Universe

3330 days since is a cool number, though an even cooler number is three days away!

COUNTDOWN!!!



I have an RSS feed for Space.com and watch it every day for good, new things. I have a large list of backlog items that I may share soon in a roundup.

But this one caught my eye and so it's today's share.

I probably started reading Marvel Comics before my first episodes of Star Trek because even though my first comic reading (1966) was the same year as the first episode of Star Trek: The Original Series it aired after my bed time. I may have seen it, but I do not remember. However, I mainly watched it in syndication starting around 1973. By then, I was a diehard Marvel fan, though not in exclusion of DC that I also adored.

But for me, Star Trek fandom came long before Star Wars or anything else was released.

And Marvel cinema was only a dream back then, not really something that seemed an imminent reality.

As such, Star Trek is first in my heart in all cinema/TV related science fiction, and so this news of its "Ultimate" shared universe makes me very happy.

Thanks for tuning in!!


STAR TREK RULES!!!



Marvel and 'Star Wars' take note. 'Star Trek' is now Hollywood's ultimate shared universe

References
By 
 published 

From 'Discovery' to "Strange New Worlds' via 'Lower Decks' and 'Prodigy', 'Star Trek' is leading the way.

Captain Christopher Pike and Ensign Brad Boimler in "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" Season 2 episode 7, a crossover event with "Star Trek: Lower Decks." (Image credit: Paramount+)


Shared universes go back way further than Tony Stark, Steve Rogers and co sitting down for some post-Chitauri shawarma. Superheroes have been moonlighting in each other's comic books for decades, while Cheers regulars frequently paid Frasier a visit in Seattle. It wasn't until Marvel Studios launched the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), however, that the concept started to gain serious mainstream traction. 

By incorporating the contrasting adventures of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and Black Widow into one gigantic, overarching narrative, Marvel successfully blended cinematic spectacle with the "must-watch-every-episode" ethos of serialised TV. The MCU's famous end-credits stings also had the unexpected side-effect of convincing us all to stick around until the end of the closing titles of every movie, y'know, just in case. 

From a business point of view it's one of the shrewdest creative decisions ever made in Hollywood, a move that helped turn the MCU into the most lucrative franchise in history, while spawning an army of imitators. Some fell quickly by the wayside — Universal's planned Dark Universe didn't survive beyond its first release, "The Mummy" — while others (most notably DC's original answer to the MCU) simply felt tired in comparison. But with apologies to box-office behemoths Marvel, Star Wars and the Monsterverse home of Godzilla and King Kong, the most exciting shared universe of them all is currently located somewhere on the final frontier.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe might have kicked off the shared universe goldrush, but Star Trek has perfected the formula. (Image credit: Disney)


It's not quite "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations" (sorry, Mr Spock), but "Star Trek"'s guiding principle since "Discovery" brought the franchise back to TV in 2017 has been variety. "Discovery" started out as an "Original Series" prequel, before warping off to the even-more-distant future of the 32nd century. That left a gap in the timeline for the less serialized voyages of a pre-Kirk Enterprise in "Strange New Worlds". "Picard" picked up the story of the ageing Jean-Luc Picard two decades after "The Next Generation" crew's final voyage, while a pair of animated series — kids' show "Prodigy" and all-out comedy "Lower Decks" — were given freedom to take the most daring swings in "Trek" history. 

Throw upcoming spy adventure "Section 31" and cadet-themed "Disco" spin-off "Starfleet Academy" into the mix, and it's clear that — beyond the obligatory warp drives, phasers and frequent violations of the Prime Directive — the main element unifying these very different series is their shared universe. Even their settings are far enough apart — geographically and chronologically — that there's little danger of storylines colliding in Spacedock. 

The contrast between the Alpha Quadrant and a certain galaxy far, far away is stark. Until "The Acolyte", every canonical "Star Wars" movie and TV show had been set within a few generations of the Skywalker family tree. But even ignoring the limitations of that brief timeline, there's a creeping homogeneity to much of the saga's storytelling and dialogue. 

Scenes from "The Acolyte" (set around a century before "The Phantom Menace") feel interchangeable with moments in "Ahsoka" (several years after "Return of the Jedi"), while the powers-that-be at Skywalker Ranch seem more preoccupied with plugging holes in existing lore than telling stories for their own sake. What was the final episode of "The Acolyte" season one if not a prequel to the prequel trilogy?


Star Wars is crying out for it's own version of Lower Decks.... something unique and different to break up the current homogeny of the Star Wars universe. (Image credit: Paramount Animation)


"Star Wars" should be an exhilarating interstellar playground capable of supporting any story you can imagine, but it's increasingly constrained by strict rules that must, it seems, never be broken. "Star Wars" is calling out for its own "Lower Decks"-style comedy", while the upcoming "'Goonies' in space" "Skeleton Crew" could be the kid-oriented launchpad that Prodigy has been for "Trek". "Star Wars" arguably needs both because right now, all that canon could easily feel daunting to anyone eager to take those precious first steps into a larger world.

Not that the current iterations of "Star Trek" deny the franchise's rich past. The glorious final season of "Picard" was a nostalgia-fest from start to finish, bringing back familiar friends and foes to give the "TNG" crew the send-off they deserved — if it's possible to replicate your cake and eat it, that season showed the way. "Prodigy" also goes big on the deep cuts, but crucially, it doesn't matter if you have no idea that the name of the USS Voyager-A's resident whale (Gillian) is a reference to "Star Trek IV". Or that a mention of the "dysfunctional" crew of the Cerritos is a callback to "Lower Decks". All of the in-jokes are simply window dressing holding the universe together, without excluding newcomers. 

The Enterprise-D and her crew made a nostalgia-fueled return for the Picard finale (ignore the two Beverly Crushers... there was spacetime distortion or something. (Image credit: Paramount)

That's the genius of the modern "Star Trek" universe, whose guiding lights clearly understand that expecting every viewer to be up-to-speed with the more than 900 episodes and 13 “Star Trek” movies in the back catalogue would be a surefire route to failure. The MCU and "Star Wars" lived charmed lives when they were built around a relatively small number of movies, but both franchises are now too vast and unwieldy to demand that even casual viewers become completists. 

Nobody should have to watch everything, so surely it's better for everyone if we accept that some people will set their targeting computers on "The Mandalorian" but avoid "Andor", just as some "Discovery" fans can skip "Picard" without feeling they're missing out. 

Besides, we probably shouldn't be surprised that it's "Trek" leading the way, because this isn't Starfleet's first away mission to a shared universe. Back in the ’90s "The Next Generation", "Deep Space Nine", "Voyager", four movies and even prequel series "Enterprise" shared characters and plotlines, to the extent that after hundreds of hours of TV, planet Earth was losing interest in shows that were becoming increasingly formulaic. Sound familiar? The franchise's latest overseers have boldly taken note — now "Star Wars", the MCU and the rest should follow in their warp trails.

"Discovery", "Picard", "Strange New Worlds" and "Lower Decks" are all available to stream on Paramount Plus, along with "The Original Series", "The Next Generation", "Deep Space Nine", "Voyager" and "Enterprise". "Prodigy" is available on Netflix.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2408.14 - 10:10

- Days ago = 3330 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3465 - Harris-Walz and Grammar Nerds


A Sense of Doubt blog post #3465 - Harris-Walz and Grammar Nerds


I love that I just learned that there's an Apostrophe Protection Society.

Love this!

Thanks for tuning in.

Time for the COUNTDOWN!!!

https://www.270towin.com/2024-countdown-clock/

083 DAYS TO THE ELECTION


https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/10/us/harris-walz-apostrophe-possessive.html


Is It Harris’ or Harris’s? Add a Walz, and It’s Even Trickier.

With Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz running on the same ticket, grammar geeks are in overdrive.


By Remy Tumin

When Vice President Kamala Harris chose Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota as her running mate, she put to rest weeks of speculation over the future of the Democratic ticket. But the battle over apostrophes was just getting started.

Where were voters (and journalists) supposed to place the possessive squiggle?

It all felt a bit, as some social media users described, like apostrophe hell: Would it be Ms. Harris’s and Mr. Walz’s or Ms. Harris’ and Mr. Walz’s? The Harrises and the Walzes? The Harrises’ family home and the Walzes’ family dog? It was enough to see double, made worse by the fact that stylebooks, large news organizations and grammar geeks were all split or contradicted one another.

“Anyone who tells you there are universal rules to how to add an apostrophe ending in S is either wrong or lying,” Jeffrey Barg, a grammar columnist, said. “You can’t be wrong as long as you’re consistent.”

The Associated Press Stylebook, widely considered to be the gold standard among news organizations, is clear on its rule for the possessive of singular proper names ending in S — only an apostrophe is needed (Harris’), though there are always exceptions. The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal all do the opposite, opting for ’s to mark a singular possessive and a simple apostrophe for plural possessive (Harrises’ and Walzes’).

Merriam-Webster, the oldest dictionary publisher in America, splits the difference: For names ending in an S or Z sound, you can add ’s or just an apostrophe, though the dictionary says ’s is the more common choice.

“People want to know what the rules are because they want to do this correctly,” said Mr. Barg, who was raised on The A.P. Stylebook. But at the same time, “you can’t impose language from the top down — it’s a bottom-up thing,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a learning experience for us as a country.”

According to Merriam-Webster, the apostrophe first appeared in the early 16th century and was originally used to indicate that something had been taken out of a word. Couple the evolution of the punctuation mark with the difficulty of the English language, which draws deeply from German and French, and problems are bound to arise. The core of the stumble falls when we go to write something that does not match how we talk.

“This is the kind of thing you get when you have three languages in a trench coat,” said Nicole Holliday, an acting associate professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley.

People can easily pronounce the plural or possessive of Harris or Walz, both of which contain epenthetic schwas, Ms. Holliday said. When a word ends in an S or Z sound, we insert a schwa — the “uh”-like sound that can be represented by any vowel in the English alphabet — to break up a block of consonants.

Put two epenthetic schwas on a ticket and the so-called apostrophe hell breaks loose. She surmised that the online debate might be fueled by Democrats wanting to one-up each other in their grammar geekdom.

JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, is in the same grammar situation with the possessive of his name, “but because we spell it with an E, nobody thinks that’s weird,” she said.

Ms. Holliday had historically used The A.P. style in her research of Ms. Harris’s linguistic choices. But she is starting to come around to using ’s on all presidential and vice-presidential candidates — Harris’s, Walz’s, Trump’s, Vance’s.

“I love an elegant solution,” she said.

Ellen Jovin, the author of “Rebel With a Clause,” said that A.P. style “causes strain on the system,” in part because in a way it splits the ticket — it’s Harris’ but Walz’s. “That’s going to freak people out,” she said.

“I feel it’s one of the more emotional hot-button grammar issues out there,” she continued. “English speakers often don’t like to see S’s jammed up against each other, which I don’t really relate to.”

But at the end of the day, withholding an extra S after Harris “just doesn’t fit what people say,” she said.

Bob McCalden, who leads the Apostrophe Protection Society in the United Kingdom, agreed.

“The challenge I would put to anyone that said, no, the possessive of Harris is just with an apostrophe, is how do you say that?” he said. By using only an apostrophe and not including an extra S, the name doesn’t flow properly, he said.

The questions of apostrophe placement regarding Harris and Walz are far from the most debated use of the punctuation mark, Mr. McCalden said. (That would be using orange’s instead of oranges.) But the discourse comes at a pivotal time for apostrophes: Thursday, Aug. 15, is International Apostrophe Day.


Just putting these down here for funsies...


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2408.13 - 10:10

- Days ago = 3329 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Monday, August 12, 2024

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3464 - Drowning in the Television Romance at the Seashore




A Sense of Doubt blog post #3464 - Drowning in the Television Romance at the Seashore

It has been a while since I posted a mix, and so I made one; however, I have been sitting on it for a while as I listen, make adjustments, and curate.

This mix was mostly, almost entirely, generated by You Tube suggestions.

Not the mixes that You Tube makes FOR YOU, but rather, starting with the lead song "Television Romance" by the Pale Waves and assembling other videos that come up in the list. And then I added some for balance.

Mostly, the "theme" of this mix is to listen to music by artists I was not very familiar with or not at all familiar; however, there are some artists who are just starting out and have very little presence online, such as Wandering With, Martha Sin Del, Alai Margarita, Alex Argot, and Lovender.

The title of the mix comes from a mashup of three of the first five songs, which were originally the first three songs until I shuffled.

I added GOAT GIRL because I had discovered that band a few months ago and posted about them:


Obviously I know David Bowie, David Gilmour, and Roger Waters. However, You Tube suggested the Bowie song as I was assembling the mix, so I added it. Same with the Waters song, which I knew after buying his whole solo catalog before seeing him in concert in 2022. Same with the Gilmour, though I did not know this song, which is a new one from his forthcoming album in a duet with his daughter Romany. I will have to buy up his solo catalog as well as I own NONE of this albums apart from his work with Pink Floyd both with and post-Waters.

I knew of Pale Waves but has listened to them, and my attention was grabbed by the image of the dark-haired goth-looking singer Heather Baron-Gracie, so that's where I started.

I knew Wolf Alice but had not listened to much. Outside of the other artists I named, I only knew Dandy Warhols and others I added for connections with other tracks, such as "Teenage Spaceship" by Smog and "Ballad of Big Nothing" by Elliott Smith.

I also added Nick Drake because of something I read about Brit folk music.

I also added Beth Orton and William Orbit and a song I knew but did not know well. I am a huge fan of both, but I have missed some releases.

The Lorn video for "Acid Rain" was a late add, and I think the video is very powerful: I love it.

I also added Billie Marten when someone played the song for me recently.

All the rest are new to me, and so I really LOVE like Beach House, Men I Trust, and Martha Sin Del.

Because there were so many songs I did not know and artists I did not know, I included a link for each artist, mostly to their Wikipedia page but to other pages when no Wikipedia page existed. I considered not including links to artists I know well -- such as David Bowie -- but I figure if I am including a link for all the others, that I may as well be consistent and include a link for everyone.

I hope you enjoy my mix!

Let me know what you think!

Thanks for tuning in.



Drowning in the Television Romance at the Seashore





Drowning in the Television Romance at the Seashore MIX track list

[1] Pale Waves - Television Romance
[2] Wandering With - Drowning - Glamor Edition
[3] Wolf Alice - Moaning Lisa Smile
[4] Lorn - Acid Rain (Official Music Video)
[5] The Regrettes - Seashore [Official Music Video]
[6] Pulp - This Is Hardcore (Adult Version)
[7] Pale Waves - There's A Honey (Official Video)
[8] Dandy Warhols - "I Will Never Stop Loving You (feat. Debbie Harry)"
[9] NewDad - Angel (Visualiser)
[10] Alaï Landa ~ Curiosa 
[11] Wolf Alice - Don't Delete the Kisses (Official Video)
[12] Martha Sin Del ~ wanna go to the gas station?
[13] alex argot - strawberry girl
[14] David Bowie's last performance ever, "Life On Mars"
[15] David Gilmour - Between Two Points (with Romany Gilmour)
[16] Nick Drake - River Man (Video)
[17] Billie Marten - This Is How We Move
[18] Yulius Wong Joko - Lost Love Ballad
[19] BEACH HOUSE // Space Song
[20] Smog - Teenage Spaceship
[21] Elliott Smith - Ballad Of Big Nothing (from Either/Or) - Kill Rock Stars
[22] Last Dinosaurs - Honolulu
[23] Men I Trust - Show Me How (garage session)
[24] Beach Bunny - Painkilller (Official Music Video)
[25] Goldie Boutilier - The Angel And The Saint (Official Music Video)
[26] lovender - pomegranate seeds (Official Music Video)
[27] Lowertown - Best Person You Know
[28] Goat Girl - ride around (Official Video)
[29] beth orton/william orbit-Don't Wanna Know 'Bout Evil
[30] Goat Girl - Sad Cowboy (Official Music Video)
[31] Roger Waters - Two Suns In The Sunset





THE BANDS - LINKS




















https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldie_Boutilier

https://lovender.bandcamp.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Love_to_Lie (Lowertown)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat_Girl


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Orbit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Waters





+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2408.12 - 10:10

- Days ago = 3328 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)