SYP Says

Battlestar Galactica: The Final Season (plus Posters)!

My current favorite show, Battlestar Galactica, is back for its final season on Sci Fi Channel this Friday, April 4, after a very long hiatus. Set your DVR/TIVO! It's got great acting, great writing, and great special effects, plus, BSG is smart--it's often considered to be a sci-fi allegory of the current war on terror--and last, but not least, it is super entertaining.

As with other favorite shows of mine from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Gilmore Girls, BSG gets lots of accolades (including the prestigious Peabody Award), but has been snubbed by the Emmy voters for the main awards year after year, but hey, what do they know. (As a former Emmy voter myself, I can honestly say that the process really is arcane and ridiculous; it is no wonder the same stale shows often win time and time again.)

Anyway, frak, I'm just glad it's back. :)

And since for some reason, I get a lot of traffic to my site from people looking for Battlestar Galactica posters, here are some cool ones (the propaganda ones are the best):

Official BSG TV Posters at FodderStore.com

Retro BSG Propaganda Posters at ThinkGeek.com

An amazing array of "Frak" on cups, T-shirts, etc at CafePress.com

Battlestar Galactica: Razor

Frak! The best show on television will be back for a 2-hour event called Razor on Sat. Nov. 24th at 9pm. Fans of The Sci Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica haven't gotten new episodes for many months, so this is great news. The fourth and supposedly final season (wahhh) starts up in Jan 2008 so this is, essentially, a 2-hour teaser.

Sci Fi Channel has also put together a series of 2-minute flashbacks that lead up to the premiere. They aren't part of Razor, so I recommend you see them online before the 24th.

If you need a little bit of a Battlestar fix in the meantime, you can watch Katee Sackhoff (Kara Thrace "Starbuck") chew up the small screen on the new NBC series Bionic Woman.

Here's a preview of Razor from this year's Comic-Con:

Guitar Center Sale to Bain, Yankees Choke, No Tyra...

This was a rollercoaster of a week for me.

* The Yankees choked after fighting hard all season to get into the playoffs. What a bummer. Alas, no post-season Yanks/Red Sox match-up. I really thought this was our comeback year.

* The purchase of Guitar Center by Boston-based private investment firm Bain Capital finally closed. Glad that's finally over. I have to say it was interesting going through that process. It was stressful, hectic, and I'm sure I don't know the half of it. Anyway, we'll see what it ends up really meaning. I think it's the right direction for where we need to go.

* I saw my first coyote loping on the highway. Very cool.

* My DVR croaked for an unknown reason and didn't record one of my all-time guilty pleasures. Congratulations--You're still in the running towards becoming America's Next Top Hanger, I mean Model!

All these are lame excuses for why I missed putting up this week's Best Song. I'll be back on Monday when I'm over the trauma.

Bad Blogger, Bad

I've been a bad blogger lately, committing the sin of all online sins: not updating my website. But I've been so busy, I implore, working at my new job at Musician's Friend and going on trips and entertaining visitors and watching Project Runway...yeah yeah, I know, excuses, excuses. Is it enough to say that real life intervened? Here's a quick recap of my life over the last several weeks:

JULY 19th: Jeff and I leave for Oceanside, CA for a beach party cum networking event. Every year for the last three years, my good friend, Phil Terry, CEO of the awesome customer experience firm Creative Good, gets 200 of his nearest and dearest friends and business associates together for a shindig that lasts a few days. We yak and surf and sail and swim and kayak. Although we could've gotten to Oceanside from Ashland in one day, we decided to stay overnight in lovely Bakersfield. Bakersfield's not as bad as Council Bluffs, Iowa, but it's close.

Me, the workaholic in Bakersfield

Here I am with Phil's mom, Helen. She lives in Oceanside (hence the reason why the party is there).

Jeff and I at dinner with Helen. I'm hiding my face because I am not a fan of getting my picture taken. :p

Phil with Sarah, the head of e-commerce for BabyCenter.com, and her family.

Our skipper, Monty, and I sailing the Pacific.

Phil and his friend Jeff, a filmmaker in LA

July 23rd: Jeff & I drive back to Ashland via Carmel-by-the-Sea. We spend the night in a cute inn and have a n expensive meal. Carmel is beautiful, albeit a bit snooty. Martin who is in charge of usability at Sun Microsystems, had warned us of this the night before while he was expertly strumming Jeff's guitar at the hotel pool, but we gave it a shot anyway. It was nice, but I liked Oceanside better, tell you the truth. Jeff about killed me because I made him take Rte 1 all the way from Oceanside to Carmel. That is a really long, twisty drive. One of the only other times I'd been on Rte 1 was with David Wauters, my friend and employee at the time (who is now at Bare Necessities--hey, let's hear it for guys marketing women's lingerie!). He was forced to listen to me practice whistling for the several hours it took to go from Santa Barbara where we had a Commission Junction conference to San Francisco. He's a real trooper. Some Rte 1 pics...

July 30th: My parents, aunt and uncle visit me in Ashland to see how and where I'm living now that I'm no longer a New Yorker. Well, actually, I'm still a New Yorker, I just don't live in New York anymore. It was really nice to see them. Oregon is a lot further than New York from Ohio, so I suspect I'll be seeing my family a lot less now that I'm here. That's a shame because they're a pretty cool bunch. Here are a couple of pics of us at Crater Lake.

My uncle Herb, aunt Yung, mom & dad

My parents & I

August 9th: I watch Bradley get booted from Project Runway. That Cher outfit was really bad (and not in a good way)--the top looked like something from an Ed Wood movie or an episode of Flash Gordon. If only he could turn back time...

August 11th:  I attend a going-away party at Musician's Friend's CEO's house (amazing home btw). Our EVP of Operations is moving on to a new job as President of MotoSports in Portland. I tell you this only because he is the only reason I ended up in Ashland. When I was interviewing for the job I have now at Musician's Friend, he looked at me, looked at my resume and said "Vassar? OH... [pause] you don't want to live in Medford...you'll want to be in Ashland." And being the impressionable person that I am, I accepted the job and promptly decided to move to Ashland, a town I'd never been to (let alone heard of), pretty much solely on his recommendation. Am I nuts or what. Don't answer that.

Tag, you're IT!

Harry Joiner recently tagged me for a little blog game that came to him from Dennis Smith. Now, I have absolutely no idea who Dennis is, but I'm sure he's a cool guy. Such is the way of the Internet. Here are my answers--post yours if they're worthy.

Four Jobs I've Had

Before I had entry-level jobs at nifty places like Jazz at Lincoln Center and Vanguard Documentaries, and before I got into the e-commerce and online marketing world 12 years ago working for brands including A&E, The History Channel, and now Musician's Friend, I cut my teeth on jobs like:

1. Manuscript Reader: There are many people in the world who think they are great writers. Don't believe them!!
2. Concertmaster: Mostly, I just tried not to trip.
3. ESL Tutor at a Prison: The men I taught at Fishkill gave me some of the most helpful life advice, such as: make sure to always have driver's licenses from at least two different states...
4. Caterer: Made me realize that I really enjoy cooking, but not for hundreds of people at once. Too sweaty.

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over

1. Aliens: Game over, man! Game over!
2. La Femme Nikita: Luc Besson at his best.
3. Contact: I want to be Jodie Foster in this movie.
4. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Spaghetti westerns and Clint Eastwood. A match made in heaven.

Four TV Shows I Love to Watch

1. Gilmore Girls: The best-written show on TV
2. The Sopranos: Except that I think I actually like Six Feet Under more. Oh well.
3. Star Trek: The Next Generation: I was going to put Amazing Race which I do like quite a bit, but if I'm honest with myself, I could watch 24 hours of TNG and DS9 reruns--oh wait, isn't that Spike TV? (Sorry, Keith)
4. Battlestar Galactica (new): My new fave!

Honorable Mention goes to McLaughlin Group..."Bye, Bye!"

Four Places I've Been on Vacation

1. Jaisalmer, India: The best camel trek of my life
2. Zihuatanejo, Mexico: The best fresh abalone of my life
3. The Grand Canyon: Did a rim-to-rim of GC in 2 days--go if you've never been
4. St. Martin: Blue water, yummy croissants, and naked people

Four Favorite Dishes

1. My mom's black bean tacos
2. pav bhaji
3. pissaladiere
4. spanakopita

Four Places I'd Rather Be

Right now, actually nowhere. I loved living in NYC, but I'm having a glass of wine on my deck overlooking the Oregon mountains which isn't such a bad life either. But there are a few places I'd like to visit soon, including Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Costa Rica, Turkey, and Mongolia.

Four Bloggers I'm Tagging

TBD...do I even know four other bloggers??

And speaking of bloggers I don't know, here's a great cartoon from hugh macleod.