Thoughts on the arts, society, politics, and various geeky topics.
This is the blog of Janice Dawley. Why is it called “Central Cortex”? Well, the Cortex was the interplanetary equivalent of the internet in Firefly, a show I was totally into back in 2003 when I first created this blog, and I’ve never changed the name since then. Strangely enough, I’ve barely written anything about Firefly here, but I’ve written a LOT about other TV shows and movies, as well as literature, politics, various cultural topics, and my own life.
This is the first in what I think could become a continuing series on graphic design and visual presentation in general. I have a bit of a background in art and worked in desktop publishing for years, so I definitely have opinions about what looks good and what doesn’t. Today’s item arrived in the mail as a political flyer for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. I...
This past Sunday I laughed harder than I have in quite a while. It all started with the NY Times news roundup of George Bush’s trip to Latin America. I will quote it in full since it wasn’t an article per se, and the NY Times will “disappear” it from their web site soon. On Bush’s Trip, a Name Unspoken and a Surprising Phrase MÉRIDA, Mexico, March 14 — Try as they might to...
Interesting times in the world of former Firefly folks (“FFF”). Here’s a rundown of some things I’m excited about or at least intrigued by. Starting April 15, Nathan Fillion (“Malcolm Reynolds”) will be appearing in a lead role in a new Fox TV series called Drive. One of the producers is Tim Minear, also of Firefly (and Angel, and Wonderfalls, and The...
This episode puzzled and upset me, but without spoilers I can’t say why. Click the link if you’ve seen it and/or don’t care about finding out what happens ahead of time.
A couple of weekends ago, I watched X-Men: The Last Stand, the most recent installment in the X-Men movie franchise. On the same night, I finished reading Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. You might think that a 9-month-old superhero movie and a 160-year-old realistic novel don’t have anything in common, but you’d be wrong… Both fictions take on the subject of women and...
I was feeling nerdy today, so I made a number of changes on the blog. Here’s what I did: Updated to Nucleus CMS version 3.24 Added a link to the RSS 2.0 feed in the sidebar Re-enabled the subscription option (see the Login area) Added a list of the 10 most recent comments on the member info page Unfortunately, the last thing I had to do today was disable the creation of user accounts...
Just now I started up iTunes to browse some songs in the online store and much to my surprise the podcast for Battlestar Galactica episode 314 began downloading. I am subscribed to the “enhanced” podcasts on iTunes, so I’m used to it all happening automatically. What’s odd is that the episode in question has not yet aired on television! Oops. For those without iTunes, the...
For you legions of blog commenters who’ve been burning to link to web pages and include text styling in your comments, I’ve finally installed the BBCode plugin to do it. Now when you compose a comment you will see a list of allowed BBCode at the bottom of the window. There is also a link to the official BBCode reference site if you need any explanation about what each code is and how...
I just returned from a performance of Jane Eyre at the Flynn. Since I’ve been sick and tired (literally) for the past two days, I almost didn’t go. At the last minute I found the strength to walk the three blocks, and I’m really glad I did because it was a thoroughly involving and moving experience. My only exposure to Jane Eyre before this was the revisionist take on it by Jean...
I didn’t even know before this past week that there was a creator of instant ramen noodles. They seemed eternal in their delicious, three-minute glory. Surely they had always been, and always would be? But lo! I have learned that one single man was the architect of the ramen revolution that nourished me through college. His name was Momofuku Ando, and at age 96, he has gone to meet his...