Aucun Cylon a Bord de la Flotte sans l'Accord de ses Occupants

I've decided Norio Wakamoto is one of my heroes now;







I see that for Hayate no Gotoku he's credited as "voice of the heavens".

I didn't have time for much but comic yesterday. There was soup, pita, hummus, oatmeal, and spaghetti, though not all at the same time, in my trough.

I accidentally downloaded the French fansub version of Battlestar Galactica's thirteenth episode of its fourth season. It featured the fansubbers' e-mail addresses and website in the opening, concluding with, "Bon episode a tous . . ."

One of the guys I thought Baltar's follower had killed in the season premiere showed up again. So I went back to that episode and I suppose it's possible he survived. The woman bashed both him and his friend multiple times in the head with a big metal pipe and she was covered in blood by the end of it, but I guess they might have lived. But they must have had some pretty gruesome injuries, and it's hard to imagine them not pointing the finger at Baltar for them.

Anyway, the thirteenth episode wasn't bad, though I'm getting especially irritated with Roslin now. Even in the best of times, she doesn't seem to do a whole lot, but now she's been just hanging out in Adama's quarters while the fleet goes to hell and I get the feeling we're supposed to like her. That just rubs me completely the wrong way. They try to make Baltar less likeable, but he keeps ending up looking better by default.

But I absolutely loved Starbuck in the episode. It's nice seeing her having fun. I suppose I might try watching two episodes some nights now so I can get caught up before the series finale on Friday. I toyed with the idea of actually watching it when it airs, but then the prospect seemed so dreadfully inconvenient. And I realised it's been months since I actually sat through commercial blocks on television--I'm not sure I can go back. But I suppose I'm a prime specimen of the culture destroying profitability of the entertainment media. Well, I think art is in essence antithetical to capitalism. How do you measure the value of art? Should we only reward good art?

I make a point of paying for art or donating to artists I truly believe in and whom I know or suspect needs the support. But donation systems are rarely enough on their own to support anyone. That the arts require blanket government support, I think, is obvious. For every multimillion dollar blockbuster, there are thousands of starving artists who are arguably producing higher quality art which frequently has no potential for superficially pleasing most consumers. Examples of capitalism's successful works of art make a lot of noise, which I think serves as a distraction from 99% of the art world, which is not commercially viable. But the vast ocean of good, unprofitable art is getting to be a little more visible thanks to the internet.