Happy Blue Monday!

The people have spoken: this blog will retain it’s policy of posting only once per day.

I’ve mentioned before my belief that nostalgia is unhealthy. Its lure is strong, but that way lies true aging, something a narcissist like me is understandably terrified of. But I slipped today. I found myself listening to old U2 records. Now, you may recall my old story of when Bono spat on me (check the entry dated Sunday Nov 7, 2004). Even so, I have fond memories of listening to War and October over and over in my angst-filled youth. So I looked up some old Rolling Stone reviews of U2 from back in that era. Here are some tidbits:

“U2 may not be great intellectuals”

“It’s impossible to take U2 as seriously as they take themselves… I want to usher [Bono] aside and wish him a speedy recovery from adolescence.”

Ironically, I have not been listening to New Order‘s “Blue Monday“.

And since I was in a nostalgic mood, I took the time to watch some episodes of Blake’s 7, perhaps the greatest of campy British sci-fi of the late 1970s. The story is surprisingly risque: an average man, Blake, is falsely accused of child molestation by the corrupt government, so turns to terrorism. With his new terrorist cronies, he steals a powerful alien spaceship, the Liberator, and wages guerrila war against the “Terran Federation”. It’s gripping adult stuff, complete with rubber monsters and cheesy special effects, but also with pith dialogue and complete characters. Highly recommended.

Here’s a bit of trivia: there was originally a planned cross-over between Blake’s 7 and Doctor Who back in the latter’s Tom Baker years, including a galactic invasion by the Daleks. This is because the creator both of Daleks and of Blake’s was the late great Terry Nation.

As cool as Blake’s 7 is/was, it’s not as cool as the 1970s’ most memorably piece of British sci-fi eye candy, Space: 1999, which featured the second greatest TV opening segment of all time. Check it out:

So, you ask, what then is the first greatest TV opening of all time? Well, this of course:

And speaking of video, congratulations to resident Deonandia villain Darth Vadum for his recent appearance on The O’Reilly Factor. Since Lord Vadum has discontinued his blog, I encourage all of you to view the video and leave your comments here for Darth.

That’s all folks!

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