1/09/2014

Strange Grammar And Other Notes

Now this may seem silly to you, but it strikes me as odd that it is perfectly normal to make statements like "Team A lost to team B" when it is  not possible to say "Team A won to team B" Also that it is normal to say "Here it is" when one has found something instead of using "It is here" or simply "I've found it." "here it is" is in defiance of normal sentence patterns and sounds like a last vestige of a more antique way of speaking that seems to equate the object's transient physical location in space with its nontransient physical characteristics like size and color. What I am trying to say is that equate this with saying something like "and very vast it was, too." which is effectively putting the description before the linking verb, which is against the typical manner of speaking in modern English. I just like anamolies.
I recently watched the baseball movie 42, and I liked it especially because even though I watched it with the sound off, it was as if I could feel the strength of the acting. In most cases I could imagine exactly how someone was talking within my limited ability to deal with non West Coast white accents. I didn't enjoy every bit, but this was mostly because the end seemed to come abruptly and that I have not had much experience with films that weren't engineered to create euphoric happily ever afters or in which the characters did not go out with a glorious bang. In contrast, this movie goes out with what practically amounts to a drawn out satisfied fizzle. It doesn't bother showing the end of the season either, which if I remember is simply because the Dodgers lost the championship that year and showing the season ending in gloom just does not work.
Below are my thoughts on the most recent Agents of Shield episode, which I have covered over with whiteout so I could speak freely. You know how to reveal the text.
Well, I don't think that was the episode the hype said it would be. We got nothing except that Coulson was basically necromanced through the intervention of Asgard. But they didn't actually detail how that worked or anything else. What is it that makes Coulson so valuable to Earth's defenses that he can't stay dead? At the end of the show the doctor said "We didn't want you to stay...that-thing" which means that Coulson somehow passed through a transition from death to typical life functions by way of some state in between, which could be anything from a cyborg to a frankenstein monster to a gibbering vegetating manic. We also discover that Coulson's musical girlfriend, whom James has been speculating has superpowers, had nothing to do with it. And then the cliffhanger scene shows that Mike Peterson their superpowered backup was also picked up by centipede and they have implanted one of the "Eyeballs of instant death" in him. In retrospect it is not a great surprise that he somehow survived, since the serum's volitility in him was neutralized but he still had super abilities that would lend credence to the idea of his having survived the remotely detonated car bomb.

2 comments:

  1. I liked 42 for the most part as well. Some things were changed compared to the real history, but I suppose that is to be expected, but other than that, it was good to see a baseball biopic done right for a change.

    About the AOS reveal, it really wasn't much of a reveal was it? Either Coulson is brought back using medical science, cyborg tech, Asgardian science, or magic, although the last one is unlikely.

    By the way, where did you watch the episode of Agents of SHIELD? I was trying to find alternative to Hulu to share with everyone since you have to have a Hulu Plus subscription.

    -James

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    1. I watched that episode live on Tuesday night. I suppose I'll try to keep up with it if you are now unable to use Hulu...

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