But you've seen Transformers, right? The first half of that movie is just sitcom high school shenanigans about some kid nobody cares about. At least the animated movie had the balls to kill Optimus Prime within 20 minutes and feature Orson fucking Wells as a talking robot planet-eater.

Nobody ever says Italy.

Obviously, Star Trek will probably not be much like the Star Trek from days of yore. My hopes for it are as follows:
1. Entertain me with a minimum of stupidity and a maximum of awesome, while activating key nostalgia areas of my brain
2. Inject some life into the franchise so Enterprise isn't the fucking last Star Trek…

Not even Simon Pegg? Come on! [/G.O.B.]

Which will you see?
I'm definitely seeing Star Trek, and will probably see Transformers 2 despite my better judgment; as far as the rest of these go, though… ugh. Except maybe The Hangover? Or this Year One business? (Which, judging by the title, I'd have thought was Star Trek- or Batman-related.)

If you want a really solid Israel/Palestine metaphor in DS9, why not the whole Maquis situation? Bunch of Federation settlers whose planets wind up in the Demilitarized Zone and ceded to the Cardassians by treaty form an organized & armed resistance, and before long, everything gets very messy.

My first thought when I saw our Freak of the Week:
"The SPICE… must FLOW."

Of the deflector dish, right? Or was it venting the Bussard collectors? I know something definitely went down in a Jefferies Tube.

Big "blue flash" during the cold open, as the camera pans down in the woods to the hapless hippies in the crashed car below.

Most important of all, Michael Giacchino did the wonderfully decadent 60's throwback score for The Incredibles. More modern movies need scores that awesome.

Similar to you, Right Wingnut, my dad instilled in me a love of Star Trek, Star Wars, and tons of classic other sci-fi films like Enemy Mine and The Last Starfighter. I've tried to return the favor by getting him hooked on Lost & BattleStar Galactica, and a TiVo to replace his nigh-obsessive VHS-taping of stuff.

Papa was a rodeo, mama was a rock & roll band.

Like the Iron Giant's "You stay, I go, no following" moment, the Spirited Away train ride sequence always make me tear up a bit, and for reasons I can never quite understand. Something about her bravery and resoluteness in those scenes just resonates.

Is "introduce them to the Miyazaki cannon" code for some kind of anime execution? Because I hope so.

I nominate America's favorite fake lesbian singing duo: t.w.A.T.u.

Regarding Patton's new album…
I just hope the set includes the bit about the dormant Mesopotamian trickster god waking to zap a rat running on a telephone wire on the Fourth of July; I think that's my favorite bit from the show I saw him do in Portland last fall. The Yoshinoya Beef Bowl stuff was pretty good too.

I really enjoy Alan Moore's Tom Strong stuff — Golden Age super-science bravura with just trace elements of irony, delivered with only the hint of a smirk. Indiana Jones-style fun.

Bendis is pretty terrible at delivering Powers on-time with any regularity, since he's so over-committed as a writer. And I say that as a big fan of the series. Frustrating as hell.

If you're looking into older Decemberists songs, I've found I actually prefer a fair amount of them in the version they take on the "Colin Meloy Sings Live!" album. While the bands' layers of noise are frequently awesome, I think some tracks like "California One/Youth & Beauty Brigade", "Here I Dreamt I Was an…

In my opinion, the best venue for a Zaireka listening is a pitch-black, increasingly humid room crammed full of sweaty people.