It never felt contextless to me... but then I tend to fill in the gaps. If I can't fill in the gaps - or I can only fill in the gaps in a stupid way, then I can't buy it. I guess because I can see ways where China becomes a greater cultureal infulence, based on what I see now.

Saw Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. My, that Sam Rockwell is fun. I remember him being the best thing about Charlie's Angels, and I loved Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. Also saw Emily and vw, which was fun - I like going to movies for low-key, nice hanging out. It gives me a happy!

After the movie, we diecided we were too tired to cook any of the lovely food we'd grocery shopped for, and ate at Redbone's, and finally brought the perfect combination of hunger and self control that resulted in FINALLY having enough room to share a piece of sweet potato pie, which was well worth the wait.

Also had 2 pints of absolutely yummy Young's Special, and am ready to go to sleep a happy camper.

I gave a bye to the use of Mandarin on Firefly because I felt they wanted that as background texture and if they had more than 13 shows to air they would've addressed it more directly. It strongly implies what happens in our immediate earth-future and it skews things enough to make the future look different. To me it didn't seem that odd because (a) the influx of Asian culture is such a big part of the future in Bladerunner so I've thought about it a lot (also it's a Cyberpunk staple), and (b) I notice the absence of Asian culture when I get away from the West Coast and it feels (weirdly) like I'm going back in time to Pleasantville.

I'll say this, Tep. Stick with the series through the disc 3 which has episodes like "Out of Gas" and "War Stories" and "Ariel" - none of which are particularly western and all of which are excellent.

I am heading out for the evening and won't be back online here until late tomorrow or Tuesday. Wishing safe and happy Mondays to all.

(((JZ))) Just because, for now.

I notice the absence of Asian culture when I get away from the West Coast and it feels (weirdly) like I'm going back in time to Pleasantville.

Hmmm -- that's something I didn't think about, actually. But it makes me wonder how the Chinese struck the average middle-of-the-country viewer.

I notice the absence of Asian culture when I get away from the West Coast and it feels (weirdly) like I'm going back in time to Pleasantville.

See, I noticed the absence of Asian culture more strongly in Firefly than I would have otherwise, because every time the characters started using Chinese slang, I would realize anew that there were no Asian characters or architecture or anything other than the random slang. It was just...stuck in there.

I thought the Chinese worked pretty well in Firefly, but that if we'd seen some people speaking just Chinese, maybe with a few English curses or expressions thrown in, even just in the background, it would have worked better.

I just got back from dinner. Bread is nice. Also, I have discovered for the millionth time that I am really really horrible at communicating "I'm interested in being more than just friends" to a guy. Mostly because I chicken out and wait for him to make the first move.

See, I noticed the absence of Asian culture more strongly in Firefly than I would have otherwise, because every time the characters started using Chinese slang, I would realize anew that there were no Asian characters or architecture or anything other than the random slang.

Again, Jess is me. Honestly, any other language would have been just as jarring.

Except maybe an African tribal click language, because that would just sound cool.

I would realize anew that there were no Asian characters or architecture or anything other than the random slang. It was just...stuck in there.

I think that, the times that we saw the core planets, there was more Asian stuff there. Not as much as I would have thought natural, but more. Not so much on the outer planets, and those were what we saw most of the time.

There were, IIRC, Asian ideograms and Asian influence to the clothing as well.