You know what I’m sick and tired of? Atheists and skeptics being demonized in movies. Atheists and skeptics are always portrayed as the bad guys. By the end of the movie they either are defeated by the righteous believer character, or realize the error of their ways and convert.

Take this clip from the movie Breach:

No, the USSR did not fall because of Atheism. It fell because of a number of reasons, namely bad economics and poor organization.

Skeptics are always the first to go in horror movies. This I can sort of understand, but it doesn’t make me any happier. For one, in the movie, the beast (or whatever it is) IS real, not like in real life where it is not and the skeptic is right. (It is just a movie after all) In real life the skeptic would not be freaking out and screaming, they would try and find the actual natural reason for whatever the problem is, but this does not make for scary horror movies and so he has to go. This is pretty much universal in horror movies, but one I can remember doing this was the Lady in water.

Take this clip from I am Legend, here Will Smith’s character explains the reason he believes there is no god, namely the sudden and horrible death of billions and billions of people (nice god eh?):

Unfortunately, at the end of the movie Will Smith’s character “sees the light” because of some stupid coincidence with a butterfly tattoo and repents. (This still doesn’t change the fact that billions of people are dead

The movie Sohpie Scholl: The final days, a film about a woman of that name who was beheaded by the Nazi’s for distributing anti-war pamphlets. There is a seen where Sophie is being interrogated by a Nazi officer and she makes some comment about how what she is doing is write because of god or something. The Nazi officer bursts out angrily that there is no god. Way to go.

The film (which I love) claims to be based off of unpublished interrogation transcripts. If that out burst from the interrogate actually happened, then I’m not going to argue with it. There are good Atheists and bad Atheists, just like there are good theists and bad theists, but the Nazi’s were not Atheists as a whole, they persecuted Atheists along with everyone else, and firmly believed they were doing god’s work by killing the Jews, just like Christians had done for centuries prior, just not on this scale. (Kinder, Kirche, Kueche anyone?)

Hell, you even find Atheists being attacked in Star Wars!

While I’m on the sci-fi leg, Battle Star Galactica (the remake series) did the exact same thing with Gaius Baltar! He started out as my favorite character, this extremely smart Atheist scientist, he even had this whole monologue with 6 about how there was no god, but then as the series progresses, he converts and becomes a religious zealot, and a major scumbag responsible for the near extinction of humanity.

Just this whole theme of “unbeliever repenting by the end of the movie” infuriates me. I’d like to see a movie where the believers repent at the end of the movie and realize that there is no god, and that being a skeptic is perfectly fine.

Todo el mundo se preocupa por hacer un buen primer post. ¿Para qué?

Si el blog anda bien, a ese primer post no lo lee nadie porque queda hundido al fondo de las cosas que le van dando personalidad al blog.

Si no, a ese primer post no lo lee nadie porque queda hundido el blog completo.

Conclusión: A ese primer post no lo lee nadie porque queda hundido.

Así que, para variar, en vez de ponerme las pilas y escribir algo medianamente coherente, ocurrente, loco o simplemente chistoso, les voy a dejar un tema que, seguramente, ya conocen. La letra que puse abajo es la de la versión original, la versión del video es la de Amelita Baltar y Astor Piazzola, por eso no coinciden.

Las tardecitas de Buenos Aires tienen ese qué sé yo, ¿viste? Salís de tu casa, por Arenales. Lo de siempre: en la calle y en vos… Cuando, de repente, de atrás de un árbol, me aparezco yo. Mezcla rara de penúltimo linyera y de primer polizonte en el viaje a Venus: medio melón en la cabeza, las rayas de la camisa pintadas en la piel, dos medias suelas clavadas en los pies, y una banderita de taxi libre levantada en cada mano. ¡Te reís!… Pero sólo vos me ves: porque los maniquíes me guiñan; los semáforos me dan tres luces celestes, y las naranjas del frutero de la esquina me tiran azahares. ¡Vení!, que así, medio bailando y medio volando, me saco el melón para saludarte, te regalo una banderita, y te digo…

Ya sé que estoy piantao, piantao, piantao…
No ves que va la luna rodando por Callao;
que un corso de astronautas y niños, con un vals,
me baila alrededor… ¡Bailá! ¡Vení! ¡Volá!

Ya sé que estoy piantao, piantao, piantao…
Yo miro a Buenos Aires del nido de un gorrión;
y a vos te vi tan triste… ¡Vení! ¡Volá! ¡Sentí!…
el loco berretín que tengo para vos:

¡Loco! ¡Loco! ¡Loco!
Cuando anochezca en tu porteña soledad,
por la ribera de tu sábana vendré
con un poema y un trombón
a desvelarte el corazón.

¡Loco! ¡Loco! ¡Loco!
Como un acróbata demente saltaré,
sobre el abismo de tu escote hasta sentir
que enloquecí tu corazón de libertad…
¡Ya vas a ver!

Salgamos a volar, querida mía;
subite a mi ilusión super-sport,
y vamos a correr por las cornisas
¡con una golondrina en el motor!

De Vieytes nos aplauden: “¡Viva! ¡Viva!”,
los locos que inventaron el Amor;
y un ángel y un soldado y una niña
nos dan un valsecito bailador.

Nos sale a saludar la gente linda…
Y loco, pero tuyo, ¡qué sé yo!:
provoco campanarios con la risa,
y al fin, te miro, y canto a media voz:

Quereme así, piantao, piantao, piantao…
Trepate a esta ternura de locos que hay en mí,
ponete esta peluca de alondras, ¡y volá!
¡Volá conmigo ya! ¡Vení, volá, vení!

Quereme así, piantao, piantao, piantao…
Abrite los amores que vamos a intentar
la mágica locura total de revivir…
¡Vení, volá, vení! ¡Trai-lai-la-larará!

¡Viva! ¡Viva! ¡Viva!
Loca ella y loco yo…
¡Locos! ¡Locos! ¡Locos!
¡Loca ella y loco yo!

Sí, ya sé, no tengo cara para poner una canción como primer post. Pero es MI blog, y hago lo que se me canta. Así que no jodan.

Piantao

PD: si no conocían la canción… ¿qué opinan?
PD: si conocían la canción… ¿qué opinan? ¿qué opinan de la versión?

One of the greatest television shows ever created was Battlestar Galactica as reimagined by Ronald D. Moore.  The Mini-Series brought the core of the show, a story about a nuclear holocaust and the travails of the survivors, and brought it into the present with an examination of our culture at war without and within. It showed the best of humanity and its worst, and showed the Cylons to be far more complex than an army of Terminators. The whole show ended earlier this year with a very memorable and complex finale that capped an opus that stands up there with the best storytelling. So it was with a bit of trepidation that I downloaded and watched Battlestar Galactica: The Plan. Some people panned it as an editors’ cheap trick, a kind of über fan-film of the kind you watch and cringe at on Youtube.

I disagree. It filled several plot holes that never made sense in the original series, such as the appearance and disappearance of the Librarian Six, known as Shelley Godfrey. I enjoyed this because it fills these plot holes. But like the filler that is used to repair actual pot holes, the patch work is noticeable. The scenes visually jump around and older original footage runs into obviously freshly shot footage that tries very hard to look seemless but isn’t. They also left you with a final plot hole -the whereabouts of a dark haired 6.

That said, it is a fitting coda to a great series. They really should stop now. I only hope they don’t try to make a movie. There is a spinoff, a prequel, called Caprica that looks at the origins of Cylons, but it rates only about 6 out of 10 where the original miniseries was an 11.

“The Plan”

October 27th, 2009

There has been an odd lack of excitement surrounding “The Plan,” which isn’t exactly surprising. On the one hand, the show’s finale proved somewhat divisive, which could have turned some fans away from revisiting the series. On the other, there is more long term interest in a project like Caprica which could run for multiple seasons than a one-off movie, which might have fans focusing more on its impending premiere. However, I really shouldn’t fit into either of these camps, as I’ve yet to get truly excited about Caprica (although I am certainly intrigued) and I quite loved the finale. And yet, nonetheless, the DVD release of The Plan (in stores today, October 27th) snuck up on me in a way I had not anticipated, and its release seems to lack the fanfare one would expect for what will be our last time spent with this universe (or this time period in this universe).

Perhaps it is best that one goes into this one with low expectations, however. As someone who loves this show, having written an undergraduate thesis about it and spending four hours writing about the series finale into the middle of the night with no regard for my personal health, the purpose of this film should excite me. Promising to explain the Cylon plan to destroy humanity, and to detail how the individual Cylon models came to play their roles in the first two seasons of the series, one feels as if there is some really compelling material to be had here, the kind of stuff that would have me wishing I could go back and rewrite my chapter on the Cylon/Human binary all over again.

And yet, “The Plan” is a qualified failure, raising some intriguing issues but in an indulgent fashion that in its relentless need to fill in the gaps of where this is happening relative to the show’s narrative proves more distracting than informative, more confusing than enlightening. I feel as if there is an intriguing narrative waiting to be found somewhere in this mess of a two-hour television movie, but that narrative is lost when it is so clearly segmented to fit into the series’ existing structure. While we’re busy playing the game of “spot which footage was from the show and which was shot new for the movie,” there’s something interesting going on here that’s just not coming through as clearly as it needed to.

In individual moments, this feels like Battlestar Galactica – as a whole, it feels like a DVD extra where you can click a button and see what the Cylons are busy plotting at that particular time, something which would be more interesting if they hadn’t tried to turn it into a motion picture event.

If this were the story of a leader who, after plans go awry, finds himself ill-equipped to finish the job but hell-bent on doing it, only to have his soldiers prove themselves disloyal to the cause as they are one by one picked off by emotional commitments which weren’t part of their strategy, I think this could be a legitimately compelling narrative. Yes, the theme that love lives on beyond death is cheesy and simple, but there is something about Dean Stockwell as a leader of men and women that makes this idea compelling on the surface. As individual stories, the journeys of Simon (who has a family he is unwilling to let die at his own hands) or Six (who fails to complete her task when she begins to feel sympathy for Baltar as all Sixes eventually do) or Boomer (whose duelling instincts tear her apart to the point of overwhelming any sense of autonomy she had) are all kind of interesting, and with Cavil at the heart of the storyline there is something really interesting about those individual tales.

However, unfortunate, this isn’t the story of those people: it’s being sold as the story of how the Cylons blew up Earth and how they plotted against it, and when you start slotting these stories into the show’s existing narrative through either retconning (inventing the character of Simon’s wife to work as a knuckledragger) or through placing new scenes within existing storylines (Six’s feelings towards Baltar, the various scenes of Boomer telling Cavil about her troubles) things become more complicated than they need to be. While Boomer’s story was interesting, we already saw the exact same type of storyline happen in the show itself, and seeing the other side told us nothing new outside of the existence of a little wooden elephant as a sort of trigger. Knowing that Six had feelings for Baltar is highly irrelevant to anything we might want to know about Cylon culture, and Simon’s story tries to duplicate the realizations of Cylon identity that the fourth season just about played out with a character we’ve never met before, and one given basically no storyline development. If they were parts of some other series that didn’t actually have anything to do with Battlestar Galactica, they would have been intriguing, but the sense that we’ve already been down those roads couldn’t help but pervade the entire film.

I know what Jane Espenson and Edwards James Olmos were going for her, a film that is equal parts thematic rumination and fan service designed to “say goodbye” to the show for its cast, crew and fans. And everyone now and then, you get a moment that feels particularly interesting that kind of makes the project worthwhile. However, none of those moments felt like they were actually part of any broader plan, and none of them shed any light on what was really happening behind the scenes during these attacks. I loved a scene like Tricia Helfer’s southern-drawl Six listing off to a drunk Cavil the various ways the others had all failed him as he reached out desperately for his bottle, the kind of comedy that Espenson does well and which Helfer and Stockwell both nailed. But, in the end, what did that add to our understanding of these Cylons and their plan? Something like Cavil stabbing the young orphan boy was also legitimately chilling, but when the story meandered its way through the film without ever amounting to anything (we only got a name out of the kid) did it really accomplish much beyond being an intriguing setpiece? On that point, did the entire movie accomplish much of anything?

I don’t think it’s so simple as to suggest that knowing how it ends somehow ruins it. The film didn’t need suspense to work, it needed something that was legitimately intriguing or exciting. The one storyline that seemed like it couldn’t go wrong, showing Anders in the early days of the Resistance, played out in such a rote fashion that it never amounted to anything. Of the Final Five, he was the only one who was not on board Galactica or in the fleet when the attacks happened, so I was expecting for his journey to be particularly enlightening. Instead, it started with every war cliche in the book, and then turned into a game of Caprica Cavil attempting to awaken the Cylon in Anders while in the process awakening the human in himself. I think there was something to be had there, the idea that when the Cavils eventually meet aboard Galactica (as we saw at the beginning and end of the movie) they are at two fundamentally different places in terms of their opinion of the attack on humanity. However, because so much of what happens in between needs to navigate its way towards narrative guideposts in the form of events that transpired during the first and second seasons, we never really get to play out their differences except for in the prologue/epilogue, which doesn’t provide as much commentary on that subject as I would have liked.

There is no question that the film leans on Dean Stockwell in a major way, placing Cavil in the sort of leadership role that came to the forefront in the fourth season, once the uprising of Boomer and Caprica and the rise of D’Anna were over and done with. I can’t help but imagine how much more interesting the film could have been if we had seen something more along the lines of “Downloaded” (where we see the Cylons acting entirely independent of humans) as opposed to this mismatch of new and old material. The idea that Cavil ended up in the fleet with this ragtag group of secret agents, separated from their Cylon commanders and unable to mount an offense on their own, is actually really interesting, but the potential never feels realized. The almost slavish attention to detail, fitting in the details on the events the Cylons are undertaking, feels like an undercooked attempt to appeal to non-fans to fill in the gaps, or to play to those with poor memories of the events unfolding – however, by spending so much of its time doing our work for us, it missed out on living up to the promise the project had.

The retconning, and the focus on all sorts of Galactica events, also points out a whole bunch of logistical concerns. How, precisely, did so many Cylons cycle their way in and out of the chapel aboard Galactica without anybody seeing it – not only would the chapel be likely busier than they depicted it, considering how many people had died and all, but in particular Doral and Leoben would have been searched for and not able to move as easily as the show made it seem. That there could be two Sixes who, even with different hair colours, looked so alike wandering about the ship in the middle of intense paranoia is similarly unbelievable, and these types of mental leaps could have been avoided if they had spent less time reminding us of those particular realities. If they had been less worried about showing us what we know, we would have been less reminded of how they were so conveniently slotting these events in where they wouldn’t logically fit. They would always run into these issues with this type of project, but elements of the film’s construction actually made them more apparent instead of hiding them.

The whole film has this sense of “tell me something I don’t know.” We know that Grace Park really grew into the role of Boomer/Athena, and she acquits herself well here. Similarly, we knew Tricia Helfer grew leaps and bounds during the second season, so her addition of nuance to some early Six appearances is certainly helpful. Michael Trucco is given some pretty rote military fare, at the end of the day, but he does pretty well with it. The two actors given more to work with, Rick Worthy as Simon and Dean Stockwell as Cavil, have opposite problems. Stockwell is great in the role, as usual, but there’s a sense of diminishing returns: his treatment of all of the various Cylons was more or less the same, and I much prefer the more philosophical Cavil (who, with Anders, we saw less of) than the diabolical one from the fourth season (who was the one aboard Galactica). As for Worthy, he was by far the most underwritten of the Cylons (in a tense competition with Doral) in the original series so it was good to see him get a chance to give some shades to Simon. Unfortunately, it was too little too late, as outside of confirming he likes medicine everything else felt too new to really connect with the show as a whole. It’s one thing for things to be too close to the show’s narrative, but it’s another for it to feel forced and contrived out of thin air.

I don’t entirely know where all of this went wrong, but something about the form and content just don’t match up here. If this was sold as a webisode series, where we saw Simon and Anders’ individual stories in, say, 3 8-minute episodes each, and then spent a webisode or two with Leoben, Six, Boomer, etc., I think I’d be on board. But when you start to sell it as something entirely different, you run into problems. It toys with a major presence for the Final Five, but then see Rekha Sharma for a few minutes in the beginning and briefly at the end, and Kate Vernon makes only a quick opening appearance as Ellen Tigh before never re-entering the narrative. If the film wasn’t going to present a larger scale, if it was going to tell a loosely connected set of alternate perspectives on previous events that never quite gels as a whole, there were other ways to present this material that wouldn’t create expectation. The idea of spending more time in this universe is compelling, but there are ways to do it and ways not to do it. The basic idea behind the film was fine, but the script that has been constructed isn’t actually a television movie, and what it accomplishes is far from the potential of such a project with more care put behind it.

What we learn from “The Plan” is that, once the Cylons went from a world-destroying power to a group of individuals outnumbered in the fleet, their programming proved incapable of holding them back from emotions of love and empathy, driving each of them in turn to relate to their human side (however false it may have been) to the point where they were closer to their creators in their current state (walking amongst the humans believing themselves to be one of them). But by focusing more on events aboard Galactica than on their creators, and by spending more time placing these storylines into the broader narrative than actually crafting one of its own, the film falls off the rails. I didn’t need it to be surprising or suspenseful, or to fundamentally change my perspective on this universe; however, what I did need was for it to feel worthy of the series’ namesake, and that is something I do not believe it accomplished.

Cultural Observations

• I remember a time when a scene like Simon’s wife standing in a room paranoid about her husband being called out as a Cylon for his suicide would have been so fun to watch, since we know that Tyrol and Tigh are both Cylons. However, the fourth season really did play that out, so it felt tired here.
• Disappointing to not even get a glimpse of Mary McDonnell –  a lost altercation with Roslin coming into the Chapel in search of guidance and sharing a deep conversation with Cavil would have done wonders to keep me engaged during some of the longer stretches of tedium.
• I want to make clear that I don’t think Espenson was entirely at fault here: the very premise of featuring so much old footage would have doomed this no matter what, and I am far more comfortable with her handling something less hamstrung in Caprica.
• Didn’t notice a whole lot of new score from Bear McCreary, and the fact that he hasn’t yet posted anything on his blog about the project seems to indicate it wasn’t too intensive. However, should he post something later today, that’s where it will be.
• One thing that will change when (or, if, really) SyFy airs this on television: the sexual content. The amount of nudity was actually kind of surprising to me, and the Simon/Wife sex scene (while thematically on point) was kind of over the top to be quite frank. I’m all for nudity when it feels right but some of it (the topless bartender, the scene in the showers) really didn’t work.
• One positive: this makes Razor look like a tremendous success by comparison, doesn’t it?

Like any quality sci-fi franchise, Battlestar Galactica will live on through spin-offs, books, comics, toys and, of course, its loyal fans. You can’t go to a convention nowadays without spotting a Tigh here or a pair of Sixes there or meeting one of the stars at a signing or panel. As ‘geekdom’ continues to grow in popularity, more and more fans are getting in on it. Which is why, it seems, the folks at Diamond Toys are releasing a bunch of new figures long after the rebooted BSG’s finale.

Joining the already-released William Adama, Cylon Six (red dress version!), Apollo and Duala are the likes of Admiral Helena Cain, President Roslin, Starbuck, Boomer and a couple Cylon Centurions. They’re available for pre-order already, so if you’re looking for that one figure or set that’ll complete your collection, head on over to CmdStore’s Battlestar Galactica section and check out what we’ve got!

You can also grab seasons of BSG over at Amazon.com!
Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series

Battlestar Galactica – Season One

Battlestar Galactica – Season 2.0 (Episodes 1-10)

Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.5 (Episodes 11-20)

Battlestar Galactica – Season Three

Battlestar Galactica – Season 4.0

Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.5

by Marc Guggenheim (writer), Cezar Razek (illustrator), Joseph Rybandt (Editor)

The Story: In the first issue, the Battlestar Galactica, after a generation of looking for Earth, found it. However, unlike in the TV series of the same name, the Galactica did not turn aside to lead the Cylons away. They brought the Galactica down around the White House, where it was nuked out of the sky. Issue #2 is the fallout (no pun intended) as Dr. Zee takes command of the colonial fleet. Baltar makes an appearance too, which won’t be good news for anyone.

What’s Good: This is not your dad’s Galactica 1980, which was slotted into a 7pm, Sunday night timeslot. It couldn’t deal with any serious themes and settled for vanilla-flavored explorations of colonial pilots discovering the complexities of baseball and payphones. This is a much more realistic treatment of first contact, driven by the flaws of human leaders (colonial, as much as American and Soviet) and poor individual, as well as collective, decision making. It is not that people are more shortsighted in the comic than in real life. It is that Guggenheim has made the characters in the book exactly as shortsighted as the people in real life. This account of the tragic first contact between the different brothers of man inspires pain and regret. Good work!

Guggenheim introduces some other nice touches, including a nod to the new Battlestar Galactica. Dr. Zee’s first name is Gaius, and that symbolism tells us a bit about the role he will play in the unfolding disaster. The recognition of the colonial language as being related to Aramaic was clever, as was the appearance of the sycophantic transparent-headed Cylon model whose classical name escapes me.

Razek was effective on the art side, most especially on the Cylon base stars, the colonial vipers, the Rising Star, the view of Moscow and the star scapes. The facial expressions were also very good. Colors, lighting and shadows were all well done.

What’s Not So Good: While Guggenheim is basing much of the first contact disaster on human failings, I think some people were a bit quick on the draw, including the council of twelve and Adama. This sense of overreaching was slight, but it did get in the way of the fullest possible enjoyment. A little more setup or motivation would have worked better. On the art side, while the environmental and facial work was effective, Razek’s postures sometimes seemed a bit artificial.

Conclusion: The original Battlestar Galactica and Galactica 1980 had some really great core ideas. Battlestar Galactica chucked everything and got a reboot on TV. Galactica 1980 is keeping its history and rebooting at the point of first contact. So far it’s a great ride.

Grade: C+ if you are not an original Galactica fanboy, B if you are.

-DS Arsenault

According to io9, The Plan will be released October 27th on DVD (hopefully in Blu-Ray as well), but will not air until 2010 on TV.  I’m cool with that.

Falando sobre o assunto que por muitas vezes se torna polemico a resposta mais simples as vezes é a melhor. Respondendo a essa questão a resposta é: Judeu é povo, famílias, que independente com o contato familiar com outros povos, continua sendo o que é Povo do Eterno e povo uns dos outros. Portanto todos os Judeus são judeus um mesmo povo com muitas etnias devido a dispersão na diáspora. Os Judeus não procuram converter pessoas de outros povos ou religiões, mas aceita o seu povo disperso com coração aberto independente de seu contato familiar.

Segue abaixo um pouco da diáspora e história dos sefaradim do Brasil.

Origem: Wikipédia, a enciclopédia livre.

Bnei anussim, filhos dos forçados ou “ben anús” (filho forçado). Sãos os descendentes de judeus Espanhóis e Cristãos-novos (mestiços com portugueses)  que foram obrigados a se converterem ao cristianismo pela imposição da “Santa Inquisição”. Na Espanha, Portugal e Brasil, os B’nei Anusim são encontrados principalmente em regiões de antiga colonização como na região Nordeste e na região Sudeste do Brasil. Embora afirma-se que em outros lugares possam ser encontrados com igual quantidade, os Sefaradim foram obrigados pela coroa portuguesa a residirem em cidades de ambiente árido e com dificuldade de sobrevivencia. Alguns dos ilustres sefaradim eram usados nas explorações e contatos com judeus que não se converteram, isso devido o conhecimento de astronomia e linguas. Em grande parte, o problema de má distribuição de bens do Brasil teve inicio na inquisição, pois os bens foram retirados das familias judaicas nordestinas e as familias de cristãos-novos passaram a sofrer com a falta de seus bens e acesso a cultura e estudo.

História

Como 90% dos perseguidos pela inquisição eram judeus, poucos os perseguidos pelos inquisidores eram de outros grupos. As dores e torturas perduraram muitos séculos. Devido ao medo, a história ficou por muitos séculos esquecida e encoberta com o sangue dos judeus que tinham esperança em voltar ao judaísmo ou serem resgatados por seus irmãos.

Na atualidade a história ficou popularizada pela internet com o vídeo “Zog Marano”. E devido às muitas histórias entre os nordestinos e mineiros sobre seus parentes judeus (que em grande maioria acredita que é história de roceiro). Pela curiosidade sobre o fundo de verdade na história, muitos dos jovens têm procurado resgatar essa história perdida. Pouco se fala ou se sabe alem das tradições e comentários sobre esse assunto, especialmente entre os moradores do interior de Minas Gerais e Ceará, mesmo assim eles ainda vivem o seu misto-cripto-judaísmo.

Características

Bnei anussim é o grupo de cripto-judeus ou somente de judeus descendentes dos Sefarditas (grupo de judeus com características semitas (árabes). Em geral, cabelo crespo, pele morena e nariz avantajado, distinguindo-se dos Falasha (judeus negros) e dos Asquenazes (judeus com caracteristicas arianas, descendentes de familias com contatos familiares com alemães, Poloneses e etc). Judeus não são proselitistas e a explicação dessas variações na raça é a união familiar cruzadas no decorrer da história judaica. Na China existem judeus com características chinesas e no Marrocos conservam o estereotipo árabe(semita). Em maioria os judeus carregam por característica cabelo crespo e nariz protuberante, sendo que no Brasil a maioria (com conhecimento judaico) parece muito com os europeus.

Segundo lendas dessas mesmas famílias, que apesar de não conhecer ou praticar integralmente a tradição e a religião judaica, ainda guardam o conhecimento geracional de sua identidade judaica, geralmente no nordeste. Segundo essas mesmas famílias, a tradição diz que a palavra sarará vem de sefarad (Espanha), embora a pronuncia seja parecida e haja ainda uma discordância entre o que tradicionalmente se lê em livros, fica em aberto uma das supostas marcas da etnia inicial dos sarará (sefarad). Mesmo não tendo uma prova concisa, temos uma possível corelação adjetiva que divide-se no significado Etmológico da palavra. Possivelmente essa marca existia e ela vou evoluindo e se modificando dependendo da influência e da percepção socio-cultural da região. A verdade é que Durante o passar dos anos o Brasileiro foi perdendo sua identidade exatamente por não conhecer detalhes da história que foram esquecidos, e por que não dizer ocultados. As informações que se têm sobre os bnei anussim do Brasil é que são familias dos filhos dos condenados na Espanha e em Portugal, sendo que os filhos, parentes foram processados pela “Santa Inquisição”, seus bens foram espoliados seu contato com cultura e educação (tanto laica quanto religiosa) foi restrito.

Outra teoria interessante é a da feijoada, partindo do principio que em outros países onde a inquisição era fortemente aplicada, pratos preparados de forma muito peculiar e com mesmas caracteristicas que a feijoada eram a mais eficaz forma de teste de anti-judaismo para reconhecer quais eram os praticantes da religião. Pratos a base de carne de porco misturado eram preparados para a confirmação do teste. Não somente a feijoada, mas pratos tipicos de minas gerais e do nordeste são preparados de igual forma o que atesta que não é somente esse prato que guarda essas caracteristicas. Apesar de não ser uma posição oficial histórica, é um fórte indicio pára o reconhecimento de detalhes particulares a cultura, tradição e indicios da religião, que embora não apareça tão latente, ainda guarda marcas e cicatrizes fortes na cultura.

Uma outra marca forte é o Berrante que em suma é igual ao instrumento usado tradicionalmente em guerras e na religião judaica, o Shofar. O berrante carrega caracteristicas muito semelhantes. Especialmente o Shofar de chifre de antilope.

Ligações externas

informações sobre a saída dos Judeus para os Estados Unidos (Manhattan)

Outros Judeus com sua história perdida e reencontrada

Fotos de Judeus ao redor do mundo

ScreenRant.com – Drew McWeeny at HitFix has the exclusive on some very interesting developments on the Universal Pictures feature film adaptation of Battlestar Galactica.

The amazing television series brought to us by Ron Moore and David Eick gave fans new and old, a more realistic take on the classic series from the late seventies. Their show stood strong to complete its story on their own schedule, and after four full seasons, they’re now in the midst of launching the spinoff series, Caprica, that has already had its pilot released on DVD.

According to Drew, his sources have informed him that Bryan Singer (X-Men, Superman Returns, The Usual Suspects) is being brought in by Universal to produce the project. It’s possible he’ll be directing the film but there’s no word on that yet.

For those who don’t know, Bryan Singer and Tom De Santo actually had a plan for a new Battlestar Galactica television series years ago that would have been set up as a sequel of sorts, based 20 years after the classic series. That project was canned as the terrible events of 9/11 unfolded due to the introduction of the storyline being based on an all-our surprise attack, not a good idea around that time period.

Sadly, a lot of work was put into that and a bunch of CG animation had been worked on as they were only months away from shooting when they had to stop. The story of Singer’s series would follow the human survivors as they live on a colony after voting to abandon their search for Earth.

“]

Battlestar Galactica Season 4.5 Blu-ray

We also learned at that time that creator and writer, Glen A. Larson, was in negotiations with Universal to work on a new BSG feature film.

So, are Larson and Singer working together on this and will it follow the original series, new series or be an entirely new take?

Since most mainstream audiences aren’t aware of the history of the Cylons, and since we know it’ll be separate from Ronald D. Moore’s vision, it would have to be an origin films of sorts and yet another different take on the franchise as we know it.

A concern for me is the story and how it could be told in two hours. There’s so much more to it than that and it’d be have to structured as a franchise set of films, likely as a trilogy.

If someone’s got to be chosen for this, Singer is the right choice. He has the sci-fi/fantasy roots with his Superhero film background, he’s a big name in the industry, and he already has worked on Battlestar Galactica before.

Amazon Specials!

I have been watching BSG again.  I really forgot how powerful some of it was, and still is.  I am also impressed at the consistency with the ending – Baltar saying “I’ll never tell” when asked about Ellen’s results in the cylon detector, and Head 6’s repeated “I am an angel of God” replies to Baltar’s questions of her nature.  Good stuff and I am glad I can watch it in chunks now.

I need to get around to seeing Caprica and waiting for The Plan to come out.

Sorry…that’s really all I have to say. I just miss it. I want it back. I want “BSG: The Next Iteration”.

There’s no show, IMO, that has matched it…all I want is more Adama and more Starbuck. More BALTAR!! Rosalyn doesn’t have to come back from the dead or anything. There’s so much more to explore!!!

As you all know, I’ve had a lot of down-time this summer.  Not that I am complaining!  On the contrary, it has given me a chance to plot various knitting projects, and to watch a great deal of Battlestar Galactica, known colloquially as “BSG.”  I am now about midway through season 3, and am somewhat sad that only a season and a half of this excellent series remains! 

I’m a dork, but I don’t usually go for science fiction.  With the exception of a few forays (mostly cinematic: Star Wars, and Star Trek, when I was young) into the genre, I’ve remained firmly stuck in the supernatural past.  I’ll take unicorns over robots any day. 

But my preferences are not really what I’m here to talk about today (I know: surprising!).  No, I want to discuss the latter half of the second season, and how it has impacted (albeit tardily) my view on the Gulf War II, and the American habit of occupying countries in general. 

For those of you who aren’t BSG junkies, a quick rundown of the plot: Human beings live on 12 planets, known as the 12 colonies.  They are an advanced society (sort of): they call everyone “sir” and have invented sentient machines called cylons.  At first, the cylons are little besides slaves!  Naturally, they rebel, and flee the galaxy.  No one sees any sign of them for 40 yrs, whereupon they arrive en masse and nuke all the planets.  The 50,000-odd survivors flee aboard their space ships, and the hunt is on! 

Fast forward a bit: the fleet has been hanging out (literally) among the stars for a while, and the people are sick of it.  So, when a couple of pilots inadvertently stumble upon a habitable planet, there is much celebration.  A decision is made to try and settle, and the majority of colonists flock to “New Caprica.”  A dusty settlement comprised of tents and rusty scrap metal springs up like a bed of springtime daisies.  How charming!  So you know it must be destroyed.  Scarcely a year passes when THE CYLONS ARRIVE.  But wait!  They come in peace!  They just want to befriend the humans and improve relations between the two races!  And they will prove this by declaring martial law! 

As the viewer, we are privy to both sides of the conflict.  We see the cylons, wanting to reach out, but unsure of how to do so, except for resorting to further violence.  This is a slippery slope, for as Eisenhower said, “When you resorted to force…you didn’t know where you were going….If you got deeper and deeper, there was just no limit except the limitations of force itself.”  The cylons give a human quisling nominal power.  He is in an impossible position, torn between fear for his life and loyalty to his people.  Time and time again, fear overrides his misgivings, as the cylons force him to sign treaties, proclamations, and finally, death warrants.  The cylons also start recruiting a human police force, hoping that the people will respond better to those who can understand them.  Of course, both the president and the “police” are loathed by the general population, who view them as wretched traitors.

Meanwhile,  a human resistance is brewing, kept alive by hope of rescue from the handful of ships that managed to escape the cylons.  Its members know that they have no hope of defeating the cylons, who outnumber and outgun them, and can’t really die anyway, but they are more concerned w/ sending a powerful message, of letting the occupiers know that they are and will always be unwelcome invaders.  Things change when Colonel Tigh is released from detention, where he had been held w/o charges and interrogated so harshly that he lost one of his eyes.  His hatred for the cylons is as thorough as it is bitter, and he will stop at nothing to inflict harm upon them. 

A graduation ceremony for the new human police force is coming up.  One of the graduates is secretly a resistance member, and so at his compatriots’ (led by Tigh) behest, he straps a bomb beneath his jacket, and as one of the cylon leaders is shaking his hand, he whispers his dead wife’s name before pressing the detonator. 

Now, you can imagine, this idea of suicide attacks hit pretty close to home.  They are, in fact, on the news every day: American soldiers being killed in Iraq.  I never could understand them.  Yes, I was v. much against the war, and thought the Iraqis’ anger was totally justified, but suicide bombing?  Really?  How barbarous, how unacceptable, how utterly stupid!  Didn’t they see how much they were just hurting themselves, esp. when they targeted public places, like markets?   

Watching these episodes, I found myself firmly on the side of the humans.  After all, the cylons had stripped the people of their basic rights; they raided tents at night and dragged screaming mothers from their children!  They kept people in durance w/o reason under horrible conditions.  THEY WERE JUST PLAIN BAD.  And so, as the humans were struggling in the face of insurmountable odds, hoping for a rescue that may never happen, I heard myself rooting for them, Resist, resist, do w/e it takes.  NEVER SURRENDER.  Quite the little rabble-rouser, aren’t I? 

Anyway, it didn’t take me too long to draw the striking parallel btwn. BSG and the real, live war that is going on in Iraq.  Except, in the latter case, the Americans were not the noble fighters!  We were the cylons!!  And all of a sudden, I felt I had gained a new insight into the Iraqi p.o.v.  I could feel the depth of the hatred they must have for us, paired w/ the overriding desire for us to just get the frak* out of their frakking country. 

“Why don’t you just leave?” the puppet president asks the cylons.  But they don’t want to.  Leaving would be equivalent to losing face and admitting defeat.  Until the end, they are baffled as to why the humans haven’t been grateful for the “mercy” they have been shown: after all, the cylons could have nuked them all over again w/o batting and eye.  This is v. similar to what our army says: haven’t we given them new hospitals and power lines?  Haven’t we brought order after ending the reign of a bloody dictator?  Perhaps, they acknowledge, but Americans would not have had to rebuild if you hadn’t bombed our cities in the first place.  And who asked you to bring order to our country?  Did we try and overthrow your president, even though we might have liked to?  No.  But you come waving your guns, and you round up our sons and friends and husbands and fathers, and you put them in prison and you torture them, you monsters.  Can you blame us if we fight you unto our dying breath? 

Then there’s all this talk of training “Iraqi” troops so that they can “police” themselves.  It should come as no surprise that those who consent to aid the enemy should become enemies themselves, part of the “other,” and legitimate targets to those who have remained loyal. 

As I said, I was always against the war, but seeing it thus portrayed really changed my view about it.  Before, I was indignant over the affront to my moral sensibilities; now, I am truly sympathetic to the plight of the Iraqi people.  And I am sad for all of us, the well-intentioned American soldiers who are just following orders, the Iraqis striving for some measure of safety and security, and even for those who are so consumed w/ righteous anger that they will die for it. 

The thing is, before watching this, I haven’t even realized my stance on some of these issues.  You can imagine how jarring it was to agree w/ Colonel Tigh when he said that they should do anything and everything w/i their power to disrupt the occupation.  After all, if our own beloved United States were to be taken over, don’t we all hope in our heart of hearts that we would remain loyal to our country, even to the point of sacrificing our lives for its cause? 

It’s a thorny issue, and at its heart is the question: is there ever a just war?  And if so, when?  Obviously entire books could be (and have been) written, attempting to answer it.  Beyond that, I think this experience has also underlined the importance of fiction to our everyday lives.  Fiction at it best gives us an accurate reflection of a reality that we may or may not be able to experience.  B/c we know its characters aren’t real, we have no qualms about projecting ourselves onto them; thus we feel what they feel, know that they know.  Fiction makes us privy to experiences that would otherwise be unimaginable, and allows us to cultivate an empathy we could not otherwise have.

I am confident that BSG-as-a-metaphor-for-Iraq has been commented on before (I am a few yrs late to the game, after all), but I deliberately eschewed looking for any source material, b/c I wanted to offer my own thoughts and opinions on the subject, w/o fear of borrowing from someone who said it better.       

Reality and fiction have since parted ways: we are pulling out of Iraq (what’s left of it); in BSG, the humans are daringly rescued by the rest of the fleet.  Still, I have no doubt that the lesson will continue to shape my future views.

*Do you know, I catch myself saying this out loud occasionally?

Hace tiempo ya que grabamos esta chorrada totalmente improvisada, lo que no me esperaba es que le haya sentado mal a la gente, y es que lo que en un principio era una broma a un compañero al que el huracán le pilló de luna de miel en la Ribiera Maya, al final va a resultar ofensivo al pueblo mejicano…

This is not a film review. That would be farcical for many reasons, so many reasons in fact that the fabric of the universe would fold in upon itself and wink out of existence from the sheer inanity of there being an actual review of this movie.

(Although I must note that this movie is not quite the feminist manifesto I was hoping for. There are two female characters: a Gorgon who makes out with her victims and a princess who gropes herself, and then is groped by her evil brother, and then is saved from said evil brother by having a hero force himself on her. Wow.)

I accidentally watched the last 45 minutes or so of The Book of Beasts on the SciFi Channel tonight. I had noticed that this made-for-TV movie starred James Callis, whose Baltar was the bright shining light of Battlestar Galactica (in my opinion), so I watched the back half of the movie.

I picked up the action as Callis, playing Merlin, finds the lake where Excalibur is hidden, and a girl in a terrible Lady Godiva wig goes off to get the sword. Merlin said something, and I laughed. I rewound the footage, and then laughed again. Called the wife in, rewound the footage, and we both laughed some more.

Apparently, someone thought that James Callis was too well known and too charming to be allowed to speak using his natural voice, and so they compelled him to a swallow a few frogs, some gravel, a bit of fire, and a dead Spaniard to ensure that no one could tell what he was saying.

At first, I though it was a voice-over. It was that unnatural. But gradually I came to detect his actual speaking voice buried under his “accent” and I must conclude the SciFi Channel conspired with Rumpelstiltskin to trick him into using that voice. Or maybe he lost a bet with Satan involving a fiddle and a Nintendo Wii.

Anyway, the wife and I spent the next half hour waiting for him to speak, and then we would shout, “What??” at the screen in various English accents on behalf of the other characters, though he never offered to resay anything so that we could understand him.

Then we arrived at the climax of the “film” wherein the titular Book of Beasts finally appears, and my first thought was (as someone who has seen many “ancient books” in films) that this particular ancient book looked worryingly thin. It was no bulging grimoire of forbidden secrets; it was about as thick as your finger. And as a parent, I instantly recognized this as Baby’s First Book of Evil, undoubtedly a board book to withstand teething and gnawing by evil infants on the grow.

Of course, being the Book of Beasts, I could also instantly deduce what it said inside:

There is a monster at the end of this book! Do not turn the page or we have to see the monster, oh no! You turned the page and now we are one page closer to the monster at the end of this book!

Then, in James Callis’ Merlin voice, not unlike the sound of a pet store burning down,

And upon the head of this monster, between the fell eyes of the hoary beast there is a name written in dead blood and living flame, and that name is SUPER GROVER!

Fade to black.

WC:     Today – 1,151     Total – 60, 340

f

[Potential Spoiler]

Grace Park (Boomer/Athena/Cylon beotch who shot Adama) has an interview up over on the SciFi Wire that gives us a little insight into the upcoming Battlestar Galactica prequel.

It sounds pretty cool.  They will be taking a lot of the same episode content that we’ve seen from seasons 1 and 2 and telling the Cylon side of things.  Hence…”The Plan”.

I’m ready…I need more.

SciFi Wire

Grupo de Judeus Sefarditas (Sefaraditas) do Iemen. Imagens meramente Ilustrativas. Fonte - Flickr

Lembra-se muito do holocausto mais recente que nosso povo sofreu, mas muitos não fazem a menor questão de lembrar as famílias mortas na inquisição, mulheres estupradas e crianças sendo roubadas de seus pais. Fora as proibições e torturas, os roubos e a violência que otho Ysh fez nosso povo sofrer, e muitos sofrem nos dias atuais por falta de comida, pão, estudo, falta de um teto, água e saneamento, herança dos castigos da inquisição. Não lembrar da inquisição, em uma época como essa, é não se lembrar das dores, das vitórias, e acima de tudo, é esbofetear o rosto de ya’akov, não lembrando de seus filhos perdidos. Honramos Lia, e isso não é errado, mas ya’akov deixa de ser honrado quando nos esquecemos que os bnei ysrael voltarão. Essa é a promessa que nos enche de força e Alegria.

Até quando vamos sofrer com o esquecimento e as dores de uma história que não quer ser enterrada, mas também é empurrada para o fundo das covas de mortos em suas lembranças? Zog marano! As lágrimas nas noites escuras, a dor de país que abandonam suas crenças, seus ideais, seus bens para guardar a vida de seus filhos e esposa. Mulheres estupradas, crianças mortas e separadas de seus pais, tudo em nome de um Dyeus. Câmaras de torturas intermináveis para extrair uma convicção, ou rejeição de suas crenças e povo, não, eles não queriam a morte e a “limpeza” étnica, eles queriam o sofrimento e uma suposta vingança. Eles queriam tirar o dinheiro, os bens, o conhecimento. Eles queriam que eles se convertessem e aceitassem sua verdade.

É fato comprovado que foram 9 Milhões de mortos na inquisição, contra 6 milhos de mortos no Holocausto. Porque lembrar do holocausto de 6 milhões e não lembrar da inquisição de 9 milhões? Por que não tentar ouvir os clamores de pais que ouviam seus filhos sendo levados de seus braços e de suas esposas sofrendo tortura.

6.000.000, 9.000.000 de mortos! seis milhões de mortos, nove milhões de mortos! Morte é sempre morte, sacrifício de vidas, devem ser lembrados de mesma maneira e honra, ou então, será apenas uma “limpeza” Étnica sobre outra!

Que não haja Holocausto das nossas memórias.

Devemos lembrar, para não mais acontecer!

Fonte: www.bneianussim.wordpress.com

In honour of the recent release of the pilot of the Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica, we put our heads together (and a hollow knocking sound was heard throughout the region) and came up with a list of other possible spinoffs you’re not likely to see anytime soon:

10) CSI: New Caprica
Every episode: “The Cylon did it.”

9) Centurion Idol
“Your delivery of ‘by your command’ was soulless and mechanical!”

8 ) Survivor: Prehistoric Earth
“Okay, we’ve got four people left from the Saggitaron tribe and the Tauron tribe. To avoid elimination in this round, everyone will have to kill their own one ton short-faced bear. Since Bob over here won immunity in the last round, he gets the handgun with the last bullet in existence. The rest of you: a stick. Missin’ your nasty technology yet?”

7) The Pythian Prophecies Hour
“The Lords of Kobol have commanded that I raise 2 million cubits to build a new opera house. Send your donation and you will be saved, brothers and sisters!“

6) Leave it to Baltar
“Baltar, I think you were a little hard on Six today.”
“Yes. Yes I was.”

5) Cooking with Algae
“Today we’ll be talking about how to tell the difference between Temple of the Final Five algae and run-of-the-mill bacterial growth from your ship’s waste reclaimation system. And that’s a good thing.”

4) This Old Sublight Barge
“On this episode, we’ll show you how to use a socket set to retrofit that old transport of yours with an FTL drive you’ve scavenged from a derelict liner left behind by the Cylons after they took everyone aboard to a breeding farm.”

3) Monday Night Pyramid
“You know, those C-Bucks have really got an ace with Anders, I mean, he never misses a shot, it’s like he’s a machine!”

2) Worlds Wrestling Fembots – title bout: Sharon vs Six
’nuff said.

1) The Cylon Bunch
Sing it with me: “Here’s the story/ of a guy named Cavil/ who was bringing up 3 very lovely clones…”

Foto meramente ilustrativa. Imagens meramente Ilustrativas. Albert Einstein - Judeu físico, pensador e filósofo.

Imagens meramente Ilustrativas. Albert Einstein - Judeu físico, pensador e filósofo. Alemão, radicado nos Estados Unidos ficou muito conhecido pela famosa teoria da relatividade.

Almeida

A família Almeida se origina na nobreza portuguesa. O primeiro a receber o nome, e

portanto o fundador da família, foi Payo Paes Guterres. O nome Almeida vem do

castelo de Almeida (na região homônima.) Almeida deriva do árabe “Al Majida”, que

significa morada gloriosa (referência ao castelo.) Com a conquista da terra por parte de

Guterres, os portugueses adaptaram o nome, que passou a se chamar “Castelo de

Almeida”. A família Almeida, portanto, tem origem na família hispânica Gutierrez.

Gutierrez

A família Almeida, como vimos, deriva da família Guterres, forma aportuguesada do

espanhol Gutierrez. Há diversas variações gráficas para esse nome: Gutiérrez,

Gutierrez, Guter, Butre, Gutier, Wittier, Gutierre, Guterre, Guterres, Gut, Goter,

Gauter, Gualter, Galter, Gulter, Baltar, Boltar, Belter, Gutérriz, Guterriz, Gotérriz,

Goterriz, Guteres, Gútrez, Gutrez, Gutérrez, Guterrez, Gottreich, Baltériz, Balteriz,

Baldériz, entre outros como a forma inglesa “Goodrich”. Todos pertencentes à

mesma família, cuja origem está nos judeus perseguidos pelos visigodos, povo de

origem germânica que emigrou do leste europeu.

Dentre os visigodos na Espanha, havia forte presença judaica: “Em todos os eventos, os

judeus estavam na Espanha juntamente com os romanos antes de 409; e cerca de um

século depois, quando havia apenas um reino visigodo na Espanha, os judeus lá

estavam, distribuídos ao longo do país em numerosas congregações, como antítese

aos cristãos bárbaros, celebrando seus próprios Sábados, e festivais, circuncidando

seus filhos, solenizando o casamento segundo o costume judaico, e observando

estritamente as leis dietéticas, e até mesmo ocasionalmente convertendo escravos

pagãos ao Judaísmo.” (Dr. Julius Fust, “Do Oriente”)

Com a invasão dos visigodos, os judeus foram brutalmente perseguidos, e forçados a

se converterem, e a abandonarem sua fé. “Aqueles que permaneceram judeus apesar

de todo o seu sofrimento [o rei dos visigodos] interditou a celebração da Páscoa, dos

Sábados, e de outras festas… se tornariam escravos e perderiam suas posses…. [mas]

obteriam sua liberdade caso se convertessem.” (ibid)

As famílias Gutierrez e Almeida (na realidade, a mesma família), portanto, estão entre

as primeiras famílias de origem ibérica a se tornarem cripto-judias, pertendo sua

identidade.