Battlestar Giveaway

Posted Oct 4, 2006 by Walt Belcher

Updated Oct 4, 2006 at 09:34 AM

  Coming Friday in Baylife. I will have a column abut the third season of “Battlestar Galactica.”

  The series returns for a third season Friday night on the Sci-Fi Channel.

  I will give away a beautful, hardbound book about the series that features full-page 12 by 16 photos of the cast members!

  Be the first to answer my trivia question in the column (posted Thursday night on TBO. com) and you can win this 40 page book, complete with descriptions of this season’s episodes.

  The trivia question will be in the column.  But you have to watch the episode to answer it.

  The first to e-mail me with the correction answer gets the book. You have to be fast because the answer to my question will come near the end of the episode.

  my e-mail is .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

---

Get Out of Your Darn House!

Posted Oct 2, 2006 by Sir Robert Davis

Updated Oct 2, 2006 at 09:21 PM

I’ve been profiling places to go - and places to avoid - in the Friday Extra (but not every week, though I easily could).

When I am in a situation where the dunderheads present are incapable of undertanding even the most basic implications of wit, I cannot help but wonder how many homebodies would be capable of mustering a chuckle.  And why are these souls homeward bound?

You can whine about your day job, but I can guarantee that,  unless you are on the bottom run in a third world country,  there are people working a lot harder than you are and some of those people are brave enough to enjoy themselves and have a social life.  So why is the Bay Area so #####-Backwards?

When this area has the opportunity to be cutting edge at anything, it has always balked.  Sure we’re not as far behind as, say, Alabama, but come on.

Let me excuse the premise I have just established for something completely different:

Hedonism has become the red-headed stepchild of modern life.

When we think of hedonistic excess, the first image that pops to mind likely involves car crashes, cancer or pregnancy/VD.  When we think of erudition, our heads are too often filled with stuffy-shirted academicians and frou frou.  And when we think of nature, we think of discomfort.  Why?

Everyone wants to know what the “next big thing” is and I could tell you with confidence.  But I won’t.

Almost everybody is bored.  The rest are too uptight to know the difference.  Intellectualism has been out and mysticism has been WAAAAAAAY out.  Beauty is no longer.  Trash is in, meaning that, soon, it will be out.

When discussing the evolution of popular culture, “out is the new in”.

I need a colorful new cape!

---

Britney, take note…

Posted Oct 2, 2006 by Jaymi Curley

Updated Oct 3, 2006 at 02:54 PM

Why are some Hollywood princesses totally convinced that the way to get ahead in the game is to be outrageous?  Tacky mulitple marriages, all-night party habits, whispers of rehab, clothes so small and tight you can practially see what they didn’t have for lunch.  Ugh! 

That is why I love Amanda Peet.

She is the complete package: beautiful, educated, and classy.  Peet has been on a steady upswing since “The Whole Nine Yards” and now she is hitting it out of the ball park with her new role on “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.”  And if that wasn’t enough, she has just finalized her contract with longtime sweetie David Benioff in a lovely New York wedding ceremony over the weekend, and, as she let it slip a couple of weeks ago, they’ll be expecting their first around March of next year.  Benioff’s star is on the rise, having written the much anticipted X-Men prequal “Wolverine” due out in 2008, and Peet herself has three new films in post-production.

And all of this success and happiness did not require a tearful interview on Dateline, or a naked photo on the cover of any magazine.  Just goes to show you that class, hard work, and talent are just as attractive to the masses as a sad starlet spectacle.

---

Pols Just Don’t Get It

Posted Oct 2, 2006 by Wes Phillips

Updated Dec 22, 2006 at 12:33 PM

The government’s yearning for video game regulation is reaching a fever pitch as we approach November elections. In the wake of the discovery that the M-rated Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas contains hidden sex (gasp!) and every murder still being blamed on the 15-year-old shooter Doom, the government is swooping in to save us all from our free will.

There are three proposed bills floating around Congress. Two of the bills – “Truth In Video Games Act” and “Video Game Decency Act” – have names that evoke patriotism. The ominous “S.3935” doesn’t have a catchy name, but it’s by far the most dangerous.

It requires the ESRB, the board that rates video games, to play through the entire game before they can be rated. Without this rating, many major retailers won’t carry a game.

Here’s the catch: a lot of games don’t have an ending. What about puzzle games? What about open-ended role-playing games? What about sports games?

This requirement will prevent a lot of games from being released in a timely manner and could really hurt the industry. In the current system, the publishers provide the ESRB with detailed descriptions of a game and if they don’t present the truth, that publisher faces fines and the danger of receiving no rating at all.

It’s not the government’s job to regulate speech. Especially, if it doesn’t understand the business it is trying to regulate. And whether you like it or not, video games do fall under free speech.

If you don’t like it, monitor what your kids are playing. There is a reason every prior video game bill has been shot down … the government isn’t your babysitter.

---

Six Days of the Mad Dogs

Posted Oct 1, 2006 by Kevin Walker

Updated Oct 1, 2006 at 03:13 PM

James Grady, most famous as the author of “Six Days of the Condor,” is back with another thriller, “Mad Dogs.” The story is set in a secret insane asylum for CIA operatives who have burned out. Five of them are framed for the murder of their counselor. Nice set up, eh?

On the coffee table front, here are three you might want to put on your possible gift list: “Desert Light: A Photographer’s Journey through America’s Desert Southwest” by John Annerino; Matt Martinez’s “Mex Tex: Traditonal Tex Mex Taste” (yum) and “Made To Be Broken: The 50 Greatest Records and Streaks In Sports History” by Allen St. John.

The great thing about these nonfiction books is that the title is all the explanation you need. Happy shopping.

---