Krypton S01E01 – Pilot

This may or may not become a regular thing.

KRYPTON — Season:1 — Pictured: Cameron Cuffe as Seg-El — (Photo by: Gavin Bond/Syfy)

I enjoyed it.

It’s a pilot episode, so I wasn’t expecting to get blown away by anything.

But hearing the iconic John Williams theme brought out the fanboy in me.

Funny thing is, the word ‘prequel’ usually gives me concern, due to the Star Wars prequels and Star Trek Enterprise/Discovery.

I’ve always been interested in the fictional history of Krypton.  In the past I’ve answered odd trivia questions about the planet itself, like where  a “highly developed black race” of Kryptonians existed (Vathlo Island, though I had to look it up now).  I used to know where major cities and landmarks were on Krypton, from the location of Kandor to the Jewel Mountains.

It looks an feels like a futuristic sci-fi show with an interesting premise, aside from the Superman link.

Plus, it’s got Adam Strange.

He alone is the primary reason I’m tuning in, because he’s a space adventurer, in the same vein as Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers or even Luke Skywalker and Han Solo.  He’s battled evil aliens and saved his adopted homeworld of Rann on a regular basis.  I think he’s an honorary member of the Justice League, too.

In Krypton, he shows up in a hoodie and a baseball cap.

In short, my kinda hero.

The pilot served it’s purpose, introducing us to the characters, setting, and dynamics of the series.  Here’s hoping this show goes on as long as it has an interesting story to tell.  Which, sad to say, some of the other DC TV series have stopped doing.

Depending on this ‘strength of story’ I may do a weekly review of this series.

We’ll see.

MoviePass vs. Movie Club

After a couple of days of rumination, I decided to cancel my MoviePass account and signed up for Cinemark’s Movie Club.

MoviePass simply had too many hoops to jump through, and felt restrictive.  The unlimited movies per month is nice, but truth be told, I only get out to see maybe 2-3 movies per month, at best.  And if I don’t see a movie at all that month, the $9.99 charge is wasted.  Like last month, when for some reason it wouldn’t let me see Black Panther during opening weekend.

Movie Club, on the other hand, will roll over any credits I don’t use in a month.  I can buy tickets online instead of 100 yards from the theatre, I can buy multiple tickets at a time, and I even get to wave the online service fee.

Oh, and there’s the 20% off at concession stands.

We’ll see how this goes.

Martha’s Mix Tape

Every morning at 7:30 AM, on the local 80s station (I Heart the 80s), Martha Quinn plays a ‘mix tape’ of 3 songs linked by a theme, like 3 songs with the word ‘love’ in the title, or something  similar.  Sometimes she’ll say ahead of time what the theme is, sometimes she’ll give a hint.

This morning before she played it, she asked, “What would link Information Society and the Bangles?”

Geek-that-is-me thought that the obvious answer was Leonard Nimoy.

She then revealed that it was indeed 3 songs associated with Leonard Nimoy, or Spock.  The songs were:


Spock sound clip


Artist is the name of a famous Vulcan diplomat who officiated at Spock’s wedding in “Amok TIme”


Hey, look who’s in this video!

And I was not aware that Leonard Nimoy was a family friend of Susanna Hoffs.

I Don’t Want To Grow Up…

What can I say about Toys R Us closing that hasn’t already been said?

Like many folks, it’s a place where I grew up.

It’s the place where I grew up.

The Colma location was where my parents took us for birthday and Christmas gifts, and the occasional time for doing a good thing.

It’s where my friends and I would stop on road trips, in our 20s and 30s, and for me, through my 50s.

It’s where I think we got our first home computer, the ViC-20.

The big Space: 1999 Eagle One Transport, a Christmas gift.

Micronauts.

Most of the Star Wars toys that I ever owned, including the Millennium Falcon that my parents bought for me after telling me they would if I cleaned the house, which I did from top to bottom, to their shock, er, surprise that same day when they got home from work.

Great Mazinga, a birthday purchase after my godmother gave me money in my birthday card. I saw a $20 bill held by a paper clip attached to the card, and when I handed the clipped money to the cashier, she handed a second $20 bill back to me, along with the rest of my change. Talk about surprised, that was more money than I ever had, prior to getting and saving allowance from my parents.

The first Jeff Gordon die cast car that I owned, still sitting in my workstation at the office.

Midnight release of toys for the Star Wars prequels, I think I went to all three of those. They had them for the last three recent Star Wars films.

G.i. Joes and other action figures, from Megos to Marvel Legends.

Fisher-Price Little People.

Plastic model kits.

Estes Rockets, which my Dad was reluctant to let me get into, until he saw a launch at Candlestick Park when my brother was learning how to drive and park. Dad took me to Toys R Us to pick up the Estes Rockets X-15 starter kit, later that day.

I’m not 100% sure it’s where I got the Six Million Dollar Man, or the first Battlestar Galactica toys, or even various early Star Trek toys.

I do recall getting the 12″ Indiana Jones figure there in 1981, but never seeing the original 3.75″ Indy figures.

And the last thing I got from Toys R Us?

The Infinity Gauntlet.

With time I could go on and on about other items acquired from TRU over the years, but I won’t.

I’ll just say that I’ll be sad when the stores close. But the memories will stay with me.

I’m a Toys R Us kid. And I always will be.

Space Tea

ThinkGeek is having a Pi Day sale, so I decided to get a couple of items, including a new tea infuser.

I’ll probably leave this one at work, since I also ordered some loose leaf tea online.

Tactical Retreat

Man, social media is so mentally draining nowadays.

Or maybe it’s Daylight Savings Time.  Whatever.

Between the overly opinionated and the toxic fanbois, I just need to be away from that for a bit.

So of course I come here to my blog.

Which I suppose is my own Fortress of Solitude, so to speak.

Guh

I’m not sure why this year’s Daylight Saving Time has left me feeling worse than in past ones.

It could simply be because getting older sucks.

Blah.

Sleep

“Maybe if I put the iPad down I can get to sleep.”

Yeah, no, didn’t work.