Sushi and, why not, Stargate

I was in the mood for cheap sushi, the other day. The local Safeway used to be a reliable source. They had an independent contractor who came in and made simple things, like California rolls– avocado, surimi (cooked imitation crab), and julienned (I think that’s the right word) cucumbers. The rice was just right, and sushi means rice. Literally. Sushi is the name of the kind and style of rice used for these dishes, which may or may not contain fish.

The Safeway had simple sushi– nothing so exotic as to scare away the typical American customer, who seems to be rather timid about his food choices, and nothing so delicate as to require immediate serving. The Safeway sushi could stand a few hours of refrigeration with no damage done.

It seems that wasn’t enough. The vendor was evicted and, in the place of fresh, simple sushi… something truly horrific. Mass-market sushi, made with globs of gummy rice, and industrial-quality fishlike substances suitable for keeping for a week or more with no appreciable loss of its initial dubious qualities. I have a queasy urge to try it, just to verify it’s as bad as it looks, and it looks like the very Wonder(tm) bread of sushi. “Wonder(tm) bread– it’s a wonder we’re allowed to call it bread.”

Sigh.

American groceries. Screw ‘em. I’m shredding my Safeway card and sticking with Ranch Market.

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Stargate. I’ve seen a few of the TV shows. They were uniformly awful. The movie, though… well, it’s not uniformly awful. It is not a great movie, by any means, but it appeals to me. There is some good foreshadowing, some likable characters, and some archetypes that have meaning to me. There’s also something I really like about the mixture of ancient and modern, science and fantasy, and the fortuitous discovery of fantastic futures through the past. Breaking into the new from the old, finding unexpected pirate treasures, hidden knowledge. That’s all very cool.

Which is odd, because I loathe the imposition of fantasy on science fiction, in general. Star Trek is notorious for that sort of horrific bastardization of the genre. Stargate, I think, makes it work… in part, because there’s so little science to it, to begin with, that it’s obviously a science-flavored fairy tale. What bits of “science” there are, in this film, are just laughably bogus. It’s full of holes you could throw a Humvee through.

But, I like that old future/past twisting. The character of Daniel is quite engaging, despite his implausibility, and I’d have to give extra credit to the actor for that. And, I guess, it really doesn’t hurt that the chief’s son is adorable. Wears his thoughts on his face just like a dog, telegraphic body language and expressions. Communication without language. Genius.

At this point, I could turn around and rip the movie to shreds but, I’m too well-disposed to it for that. Ask me about The Matrix some time. Now there’s a movie that has many good points, which nonetheless deserves the full claws and fangs.