Caprica Reboot

As you longtime TransGriot readers are aware of  I'm a serious sci-fi fan.   I own the Star Wars saga on DVD, loved all of the Star Trek shows except Enterprise, and was a huge fan of Battlestar Galactica old and new series.

I'm eagerly watching the prequel Caprica, which takes place 58 years before the events depicted in BSG.   As we BSG fans now know these events are 150,000 years from our current time on Planet Earth and light years on the other side of our Milky Way galaxy.

It's centered on two powerful families, the Greystones and the Adamas.

SyFy just started running the Season 1.5 shows October 5, and I spent a few hours one evening catching up on the three episodes I missed so I'll be ready for tonight's broadcast..

We BSG fans know how it will end, with the nuclear devastation of the Colonies in a Cylon sneak attack 58 years from now.   But the interesting part will be hopefully getting to see the events that lead to the First Cylon War, colonial political unification and that 40 year gap between the departure of the Cylons from colonial space and their deadly return.

It's already been interesting to see some of the various colonial worlds such as Caprica, Tauron and Gemenon, the polytheistic religious life, differences and different cultures on them and some of the tensions and cultural beefs between them

I also love watching my Tauron peeps.   There's a sizable Tauron cultural presence on Caprica due to the immigration resulting from the Tauron Civil War and prejudice directed at them by Capricans is widespread..   And as I discovered in a recent episode, some of the denizens of other world aren't too enamored with Capricans either.

The Adamas, one of the two families profiled on the show it are from that world.   

And yes it's those Adamas.   11 year old Willie Adama is the same one who will grow up to be the future commander of the battlestar Galactica 

His father Joseph is a civil rights attorney who does side work for the Tauron mob and his uncle Sam is a highly ranked same gender married member of the Halatha,

Nope, that was not a typo.  Sam is gay and nobody inside or outside his family is tripping..  


It's been a fascinating exploration into more of the events feeding into the BSG universe backstory while once again mixing issues into the shows ripped straight from our world's headlines.   Religious fanaticism, terror in the name of religion, development of AI and what it means for humans, and technology development and its impact on society. 

I hope SyFy is wise enough to pick it up for a few more seasons and allow it a chance to find the audience it deserves.

'Caprica' Begins

The night me and other Battlestar fans have been waiting for ever since the reimagined BSG ended and we got a taste of it in a miniseries is finally taking place.

We finally get to see the season premiere on SyFy of the Battlestar Galactica prequel series Caprica next week, but this weekend they reran the episode kicking off the show. The new episodes start next week.

There's even a website on SyFy that has a mock Caprican newspaper that you can leave comments on.

Every now and then you'll see one on the various posts from TauronMoni on it. ;)

While this one is set in the BSG universe, it's taking place 58 years before the events depicted in Battlestar Galactica.

I'm anxious to see how it will play out and looking forward to killing an hour in front of the TV watching it.

Transpinay Enters Philippine Big Brother House

The good news about transpeople around the world just living their lives and being positively visible just keeps on coming.

Pinay TG actually posted this on October 10, but it bears repeating anyway.

Pinay TG wrote that STRAP member Rica Paras is entering the Philippine Big Brother house. From reading the post, hell, I want to meet Rica. She's got it going on as we'd say in my old neighborhood.

There is a show website with individual profiles of the housemates that you can peruse at your leisure. Was a little irritated that they put Rica's old name out there in her profile, but hold your fire gang. STRAP is wishing to use Rica's appearance as a teachable moment for Philippine society, so let's let them handle their local business.

If they need more international firepower backing them up, Pinay TG and STRAP will let us know.

So just show Rica some love and support. Two fan sites with much content written in Filipino have popped up. Pinay TG will advise me about other things they are coming up with to better support our sis.

Congratulations, Rica and good luck.

Vogue Evolution Eliminated

Well, just as I started getting interested in America's Best Dance Crew, the major reason I was watching it disappeared tonight.

The Vogue Evolution crew, the GLBT team of dancers from the New York ballroom community ended up in the bottom two due to lack of voter support and faced a dance off.

Unfortunately, they didn't survive it and were eliminated by the judges.

As you stated Leiomy, this is probably not the last we'll see of Vogue Evolution. Y'all definitely have talent that we'll see again someday.

But I'm extremely proud of Leiomy and the entire crew for 'representing' the LGBT community well. I wish you could have gone on to win the big prize, but that was not to be.

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

As a writer I love shows that are well written and have great acting. I stumbled across just such another show on HBO with the The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency.

The six episode show and the pilot movie is based on the series of ten novels by author Alexander McCall Smith and is shot entirely on location in Botswana. The HBO show stars Grammy award winner Jill Scott in the lead role as Precious Ramotswe and Tony Award winner Anika Noni Rose as Grace Makutsi, her awkward but very efficient secretary.

As the owner of the only woman owned detective agency in Botswana's capital of Gaborone, Precious has realized the achievement of her dream. She's kept busy solving various cases while also dealing with the problems and foibles of her clients lives as well.

It's also shined a spotlight on one of the more successful nations in sub-Saharan Africa. Botswana has been politically stable since independence in 1966, well run, prosperous and managed to avoid the drama that has plagued other emerging African democracies. The show has given us a chance to see the beautiful countryside and the wonderful nation as well.

It's enjoyable television, and I'm planning to catch up on the episodes I missed.

Battlestar Finale

The cast, producers and writing team said we'd be blown away by the finale, and we weren't disappointed. After four seasons of twists, turns, a million light year journey across the galaxy, and one final climactic battle, the journey ends at a shining planet called Earth after a final FTL jump from the proud warship breaks its back to where it can never jump again in the solar system of a habitable planet.

The habitable planet the final 39,000 survivors arrive at is OUR Earth, 150,000 years ago.

Hmm. Life here began out there.

Like 'errbody' else who is a Battlestar Galactica fan I took a break from all the NCAA basketball games on the tube and checking out how accurate my predictions were for the 2009 version of the tournament to use the big screen TV to watch the final episode of the show. All of the loose ends were tied up and a few surprises were thrown into the mix as well.

Still it was sad to see Laura die even though we all knew it was going to happen at some point. Seeing all the backstory flashbacks with the various characters was nice and how cool was the scene in which the Galactica and the entire spaceship fleet that got them to Earth were sent hurtling toward the Sun to the tune of the original Battlestar theme song.

While this is the end for the regular series, we still are about to be treated to a possible movie, the upcoming Caprica series, and the Battlestar Galactica story in miniseries format from the Cylon point of view just before the fall of the Colonies.

The Battlestar story isn't going to die, it's multiplying. And that's fine with me.

The Proud Family

You and me will always be tight
Family every single day and night
Even when you starts acting like a fool
You know I'm loving every single thing you do

I know I can always be myself
Around you more then anybody else
And every day as I'm heading off to school
You know there no one
I love as much as you

Family, a family
Proud Family
They'll make you scream
They'll make you wanna sing
Its a family thing a family
A proud proud family
Proud Family
They'll push your buttons
They'll make you wanna hug 'em
A family
A family
A proud proud family

When this cartoon premiered on Disney with the catchy theme song sung by Destiny's Child and little sis Solange Knowles, it got my attention.

Not long after I moved to Louisville Dawn and I were parked in front of the TV watching the antics of Oscar, Trudy, Penny, Suga Mama, the infant twins Bebe and Cece and Penny's friends Zoe, Dijonay, Sticky and 'frenemy' Lacienega.



Toss in Wizard Kelly owning everythang, Oscar's humorous attempts to sell the town his barf inducing Proud Snacks, The Gross Sisters jacking 'errbody' in the school for their money, Dr. Payne, rapper Sir Paid A Lot, the Boulevardez clan, Suga Mama's romantic pursuit of Papi Boulevardez, little Peabo's crush on Penny, and Penny navigating the waters of a teenager growing up, and life in Wizville, CA and at Willy T. Ribbs Jr/Sr.High was never boring

It was also cool because this was not only written as a slice of teen life from an African-American middle class perspective, it's rare that you had a cartoon that focused on African American life and our perspectives, period.

Okay, so now we have The Boondocks, but this preceded it, people.

I also loved the fact that during its four year run from September 15, 2001 to August 19, 2005 it had a long list of African-American and other entertainers doing guest appearances that ranged from Vanessa L. Williams to Samuel L. Jackson and Kobe Bryant.

But the one thing that irritated me during the show's run and since was how Kim Possible, a show that started at roughly the same time and even though I love that cartoon as well, was relentlessly pushed marketing wise with merchandise in their Disney stores and on the Disney website and The Proud Family wasn't.

I';m also mildy irritated that Kim Possible is still on the air and the Proud Family isn't as well.

Thanks to Bruce W. Smith and his Jambalaya Studios, we'll have the Proud Family around (as soon as they put all four seasons on DVD) to treasure forever.

The Hippest Trip In America

Don Cornelius getting busted last Friday in LA triggered memories about my favorite way in my teens to enjoy a Saturday besides watching my favorite cartoons.

The show was Soul Train and to me and every other African-American kid growing up in the 70's, 80's, 90's and part of the 2K's, it was Must See TV.

It was our version of American Bandstand and Don Cornelius was our Dick Clark. I tuned in to KHTV 39 at noon to see the latest dances, the latest fashions and hear the latest music.

And because I was on the wrong side of the gender fence at the time, I was also jealously envious of the sistahs on that show.




You also got to see the Soul Train Dancers forming that world famous Soul Train Line and either coolly or in some cases acrobatically moving and grooving their way down the end of it.







Some of the peeps who danced on Soul Train over the years included Rosie Perez, Carmen Electra, Nick Cannon, MC Hammer, Jermaine Stewart, Fred "Rerun" Berry, Pebbles, and NFL legend Walter Payton. Jody Watley and Jeffery Daniel danced on the show before becoming (along with Howard Hewitt) two-thirds of the group Shalamar.

It was also the place where we tuned in to see our artists (even if some of them were lip-synching to the songs).


The Commodores 1974



Chic 1978



Teena Marie 1980



Morris Day and The Time 1982



Vanity 6 1984



After a 35 year run, 1117 episodes and several guest hosts after Don Cornelius stepped down in 1993, Soul Train ended its historic run in 2006.



Wishing you love. peace and SOUL!

Faux News Ignorance

Y'all know how much I loathe Faux News or any right-wing conservaoutlet. It's nothing but a propaganda organ for the Republican party for starters and racist to boot. Add transphobic to the list of reasons why I make sure any TV I own doesn't spend a millisecond parked on any channel that carries it.

The news broke of Isis' groundbreaking addition to America's Next Top Model and wasn't even 24 hours old before the Faux News KKKlowns, with an assist from Us Weekly magazine's editor ar large Ian Drew started their insulting and demeaning comments.



Soon after the segment aired, GLAAD contacted both Fox News Channel and Us Weekly, calling on both to apologize. Us Weekly issued the following statement: “We apologize if any group was offended by our editor’s comments as it was by no means his intention.” Fox News did not respond.

Typical of Faux News, the bigoted white boys (and girls) club masquerading as a news organization. Feeling bad because you can't measure up, little boys?

If you feel like letting out some frustration at Faux News, here's the contact info.

Fox News Channel

Gregg Jarrett - Anchor
(212) 301-3000
gregg.jarrett@foxnews.com

Jay Wallace - Executive Producer
(212) 301-5168
jay.wallace@foxnews.com

Tom Lowell - Senior Producer
(212) 301-3000 (outlet)
tom.lowell@foxnews.com

More Transgender Themed Commercials

Theere was a post I did a while back on transgender themed commercials from around the world. Found some more on YouTube for you to peruse.


The Sierra Mist Undercover Oramge one with a Get Smart theme.




The NTAC PSA we cut.




A Braun commercial featuring the late Karen Dior