Tigh, for one, welcomes our new Cylon overlords.
In this third season premier, Battlestar Galactica showed why it may be the smartest and bleakest show on television. Suicide bombings? Chargeless detention? Warrantless arrests in the middle of the night? Enemy collaborators? Double agents? BSG is not a simple political polemic about Bush and Iraq, but is about posing the big questions and not providing a simple answer.
Is it right to commit electoral fraud to avoid getting occupied by the Cylons on planet Craphole? Right now, Zarek, Roslin and tens of thousands of Colonials are probably thinking that a little fraud wouldn’t have been a bad thing.
While the entire double episode (Occupation/Precipice) was excellent, the scene between Roslin and Baltar in the detention cell stood out as the pinnacle of the episode (as did a similar scene between Roslin and Baltar during the lead up to the election in Lay Down Your Burdens Part 1, mostly due to the killer performance of Mary McDonnell.) Here, Baltar (Baltar!) emerges as the voice of reason, arguing against suicide bombings.
Baltar is a wonderfully self-absorbed character. Every time he has the opportunity to do something selfless, he always chooses to do just that which serves his self-interest over the public interest. Every time he has been offered a chance at redeeming himself, Baltar has chosen to take the easy way out of that immediate situation. And yet, James Callis performs the role with enough humanity to make Baltar more than just a villian. Perhaps the Six in Baltar’s brain is correct and he will serve some larger purpose in the end.
Alan Sepinwall, as usual, hits all the right notes in his blog post: Battlestar Galactica: Eyes for an eye. He also interviewed showrunner Ron Moore: What the frak?
The Chicago Tribune’s Maureen Ryan also spoke with Moore: Ron Moore Talks Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica.
Although they can contain spoilerly bits for upcoming episodes, Moore’s podcast commentaries are worth listening to for more insights into the writing process and choices. For example, Ellen Tigh’s Seinfeld reference was a deliberate homage.

Is the era of the record store over?
Tower Records was sold in a bankruptcy auction to a high bidder who plans to liquidate. “Tower Records, which has 89 stores in 20 states and owes creditors about $200 million, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in August. In its filing, the company said it has been hurt by an industrywide decline in music sales, downloading of online music and competition from big-box stores such as Wal-Mart.”

It’s no joke: IU study finds The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to be as substantive as network news: “Interestingly, the average amounts of video and audio substance in the broadcast network news stories were not significantly different than the average amounts of visual and audio substance in The Daily Show with Jon Stewart stories about the presidential election.”
Perhaps this says more about the lack of substance in the network evening news programs than in the amount of substance in The Daily Show.

Chicago Tribune MySpace, MyStage: “Who needs a record deal? Artists now can sell their music directly through MySpace… Such technology allows musicians to bypass big distributors and sell directly to their fans. But there can be a downside, those in the music industry say. Go-it-alone acts don’t have nearly the marketing muscle or publicity power of traditional hit-makers, so independent artists must find ways to market themselves, book shows and sell their music in a crowded field.”
But the problem without the traditional intermediaries is that the intermediaries often add value. In the unfiltered mix of music in the market, there is a lot of crap. Additionally, many artists appeal only to a particular niche audience. Intermediaries help to filter the music towards the audiences. While MySpace, CDBaby and others help independent musicians stand on the same footing as their signed counterparts, the bands on labels have more capital and access to the press. Those matter.
Simply throwing some songs up on MySpace enables artists to distribute music to their audience easily. That does not, however, help an artist find the audience.

Spin’s band of the day is DriveShaft. Yes, the DriveShaft from Lost, featuring a bass-playing heroin-addicted hobbit.
We’ll try to catch up on this week’s Lost along with all of the other TV from the last week (including TAR, Studio 60 and South Park) later.

The Somking Gun has Iggy Pop’s rider. It’s more entertaining than the average tour rider. Lust For Laughs: “Apparently written by roadie Jos Grain, the Iggy rider is peppered with witty gems, tasteless asides, and typos.”

Well, The ‘Fork likes the Decemberists’ major label debut: The Crane Wife. The record drops today. Hyper-literate rogue sea captains tremble with anticipation.
In contrast, one gets the impression that the ‘Fork doesn’t like the new Jet album.

This was a great leg of the race. The teams travelled from Beijing to Ulaanbaatur via bus and train. This was a pleasant change from the single day legs that plagued most of Race 9. The teams had to not only deal with buses, trains, horses and taxi drivers, but also to navigate in Soviet vintage 4x4s.
But whereas this season has stepped up the game as far as tasks and route in the first two legs, none of the teams stand out as immediate favorites or immediate villains.
Here’s a first hand account from the guy who Ferned Lyn and Karlyn’s out of Ulaanbaatur .
As it should be on the Race, the team that had a “stupid day” was the one eliminated.