Echoes of Flavio's Ghost Dreaming

At this point, President Santiago has died in a convenient accident and the newly appointed President Clark begins to work to please his shadowy associates. Captain Sinclair has mysteriously been put aside and sent away and the Star Killer has been appointed his successor.

In the last few days I've been re-watching Babylon 5. Yes, yes, the graphics scream '1991' but the story and, most of all, the characters, grab you (or at least grabbed me) and are believable and human -including some of those aliens with the rubber masks and the make up- and none of the imperfections of the show matter.

I'm learning that JMS wants to reboot or redo B5. That would be a difficult task. Worked with BSG because the original was almost a joke. It obviously wouldn't be the same cast, nearly thirty years on (many of whom are no longer with us) and maybe not the same characters. We'll see.

B5 is showing on Amazon -apparently you don't need to be on Prime to watch it but you have to endure commercials (ah, it's good to have a mute button).

Odd how a very light thread of conversation on FB about Babylon 5 quickly turns into a discussion about the current UK/World situation...

I was corrected when I said the world was in the hands of Mr Morden and his associates and we had Prez Clark for real. They said 'nah, it's Cartagia.....'

Mr. Morden: What do YOU want?

Ambassador Vir Cotto: I'd like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I want to look up into your lifeless eyes and wave like this.

[waves]

Ambassador Vir Cotto: Can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?

Nothing much happening worth relating in the last week or so. Late summer holiday is good in that I have time to do things I normally don't during term-time, like reading and practising guitar. It is quite bad in terms of income: no lessons means no money coming in. In that respect I do need things to go back to normal; I'm burning fast through my emergency funds.

Tonight I met robot_mel and beluosus for coffee and catch up at the Rustique café in Tufnell Park. This was excellent and, as always, those two helped expand my cultural/literary horizons, in some cases by reminding me about stuff I have been interested in but which for various reasons has gone under my radar.

I also have been re-watching Babylon 5, which I only belatedly discovered some three years ago or so thanks to maxvon_d when he was taking guitar lessons with me. It is what science-fiction is when at its best: a study on the big questions but also on ordinary people under extraordinary circumstances. Some of those aliens in the show, like London and G-Kar, are so very human.

I'm also reading 'Why is There Something Rather Than Nothing' (amazon uk link) by Jim Holt. Fascinating little book over one of the biggest Big Questions. Only thing is the author seems to fall much more on the 'god' side of things (hasn't said as much so far as I am in the book, not explicitly, but almost, almost..) which I tend to find quite annoying, but it is a fascinating quest involving lots of people like St Augustine, Leibniz, Heidegger, Weinberg, Deutsche and a cast of thousands. Bound to be unsatisfactory in the end (haven't got there yet) in that he cannot possibly get the answer to his question, but it's as much about the journey as about the destination. Or more, in this case.