Blake's 7 Amuses Unintentionally

I'm about 12 episodes into Blake's 7 now, and I thought I should point out a couple of the show's amusing shortcomings:

• The incidental music seems to have been lifted, without modification, from Doctor Who episodes of the same era.  This re-use of material isn't entirely surprising given the links between the series.  Both shows aired on the Beeb,  B7 was created by Terry Nation, who wrote for Doctor Who and created the Daleks,* and, most relevantly, B7's music was composed by Who veteran,  Dudley Simpson.
• The fight sequences are completely ridiculous, and not the fun kind of ridiculous like you'd find in a Hong Kong kung fu film.    Imagine a fight scene from the original Star Trek, but slowed down to about 3/4 speed and with the punches replaced by the kind of awkward shoving you might see between 8-year-old sisters.  Leave in the 2-handed "clubbing," though.

* I guess Nation is the nearest real-life equivalent to Davros, then. 

Software Review: SweatShop Timer

We've been using the SweatShop timer for more than a year now, so I thought I should post a review.

The Setup

This timer is a small program intended for timing multiple rounds and rests during a workout;  I find it invaluable for Tabata workouts, but it is helpful for others as well.  It can also be used for sparring matches.  Alison has even used it to time debates among students in a class she TAed.  The number of rounds, length of rounds, and length of rests can all be adjusted freely.  Several audible alerts can be enabled or disabled to make it easy to follow the timing without watching the large, central display.  The program is free and contains no adware or, apparently, spyware.

The Bottom Line

Considering its functions and its price, I give the SweatShop timer 9.0 out of 10.

A Minor Criticism of Technique

Can anyone throw a punch worse than Sarah Michelle Gellar?

Post Office Showdown

I developed this habit not long after I began studying krav maga. It certainly changes one's perspective.

Ninja for Hire

Once again, Brian has pointed out something interesting. Check out this video of a self-described urban ninja. It's pretty impressive.

You Know...

I received a number of DVDs for Christmas and Michaelmas (Thanks, Mom and Dad.), and I've also been borrowing some (Thanks, Tim.). As a result, I've watched many hours of TV-on-DVD recently. Here is just a sampling of what I've learned from the experience:

• You know you've been watching too much Arrested Development when you find yourself humming Europe's 1986 single, "The Final Countdown". (Yes, this has actually happened to me.)
  
• You know you've been watching too much Buffy when your girlfriend---I mean, fiancée---points out that your own dialog has become Whedonesque. (This one's happened, too.)
  
• You know you've been watching too much Firefly when you exclaim "Gorrammit!" after being frustrated or angered. (This one's purely hypothetical. Yeah, hypothetical; that's it.)
  
• You know you've been watching too much Red Dwarf when you suddenly realize that all your friends are entirely human, and you find that boringly disappointing. (Yep.)
  
• You know you've been going to krav too frequently when you catch yourself thinking you can solve any problem by beating the snot out of somebody. OK, this isn't DVD-related. Unless...maybe it was all that Buffy. (Oh, and this one happens all the time.)
  

Movie Review: Shaolin Soccer

Alison and I watched Shaolin Soccer (originally released in China as
Siu Lam Juk Kau) last night. It is possibly the zaniest film I've ever seen.

Here's the setup: Golden Leg (Yep, that's his name.), a former soccer (football to you Commonwealthers) star now broken-legged and jobless, meets Mighty Steel Leg (Again, that is his name.), a self-proclaimed kung-fu master who is on some crazy mission to get people to apply kung-fu to their everyday tasks, such as parallel parking and hedge-trimming (I kid you not.). So, Mighty Steel Leg gathers his kung-fu brothers (whose names are mostly combinations of metals and body parts), forming a soccer team, coached by Golden Leg, to take on Team Evil (Seriously. It actually says "EVIL" on the scoreboard.) in the Super Cup (as if anyone would actually put "Super" in the name of a serious sports event---spfff).

My previous paragraph doesn't begin to describe just how over-the-top this movie is. Everything in the film is cranked up to 11: The kung fu is supernatural, the soccer is beyond belief, the bad guys exclusively wear black, the ugly duckling is completely made over (Twice!), and the nonsensical dance numbers are really nonsensical.

Given all the above, I'll give you a little time to prepare yourself for what I'm about to say.

Ready?

How 'bout now?

It's a really entertaining movie. It's so over-the-top, so beyond-the-maximum, that the viewer can't help being swept up in the film's enthusiasm. It's a silly, funny, good time.

I give it 8.0 out of 10.