dommah's linked-up top 10 list of the 00's!

Not songs or films, but personal and public events of note:

2000. I left the coolest job in the world to move to LA and get into filmmaking. The ex-job was translation/adaptation editor for a startup comic company doing online English versions of Japanese comics. The whole day was thinking about the best transliteration of "sound of heart thumping" or "sound of head smashing into pavement." Here's the first book of one of the cool titles we did, Tomie by Junji Ito. It really was an excellent gig, but oh well, following dreams, all that, and anyway that company folded with the burst of the dotcom bubble.

2001. Around 9/11, I got a new job as a professional card player and learned about a whole new world of scum and villainry, resulting in some of my more popular blog rants. Oh, and 9/11 happened. That seems like it should be on the list...

2002. I have no notes on this year. I think I spent most of it hanging out with my girlfriend. Girlfriends can be great in that they keep you from knowing what's going on in the rest of the world. Seriously, if there was a nuclear explosion this year, I've forgot about it, 'cause we were probably deciding which Indian restaurant to go to.

2003. There was a special recall election that made Arnold Schwarzenegger the governor of California. I still have difficulty believing that happened.

10 More Things That Seriously Totally Happened This Decade And Now You're Like Over It: Friendster, Facebook, the poker fad, the Tsunami in Thailand, Hurricane Katrina, Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy, Bush & his Oil Buddies invade Iraq for why?, same-sex marriages, Ipods, text messages. I just want to say that again 'cos it's funny: TEXT MESSAGES.

2004. I shot an independent science-fiction movie and had a run-in with the Department of Home Security. The short version is: never ever park your unmarked grip truck next to a government property during the Age of Terror, even if you have a filming permit.

2005. The last Star Wars movie came out this year. That was a big deal just because it threw into sharp focus that being 30 was gonna be a lot less fun than being 5. My review here.

10 Best Films of the Decade: Brick, Half Nelson, Iron Man, The Savages, Macross Frontier, Michael Jackson's This Is It, Day Night Day Night, 40-Year Old Virgin, Donnie Darko, Primer. (OK, Macross Frontier isn't quite a movie, but there is a feature version released in Japan, so by a technicality.)

2006. I can't remember much of this year except there was a lot of pining and casino douchebags. Also, somehow this year I got the brilliant idea to buy a condo on an adjustable-rate loan. I spend much of this year and the next sweating through attacks of cold panic and depression.

2007. The Warriors won a playoff series. I mean, if you remember how much the Mavericks killed everyone that year, and how not very good the Warriors generally are, that was pretty awesome.


2008. It's hard to pick out of all the important stuff from this year (getting out of the ill-advised condo, script-doctoring gig, leaving the Bicycle Club, the Olympics in Beijing...) but I think the best thing was we got Obama, and more importantly, got rid of George Bush and the GOP-run Congress. To all the Obama-haters...look, the Justice League couldn't undo all the Bush-era evil shit in a year. The Bush people were titanically evil and lame. I mean, really, everything they did was evil. They couldn't even go on a hunting vacation without shooting a friend with a rifle, that's how dedicated they were to evil. The world is a much better place now.

2009. Newly laid off by jerkoff investor-employers from casino job, I complete my profile as an Economic Collapse Anecdote: bought crappy home, lost crappy home, lost job, check all. But, just in time, the screenwriting projects picks up. I write some scripts I'm very excited about, one of which won a few nice awards from Tribeca and Sundance. Life changes for the better, if not the richer.

2010.  My big resolutions are to make my movie (you can help!), develop my Asian-casino-action screenplay, keep pushing on the "Look For Water" movie, eat more green vegetables, get a better pillow, and watch every Natalie Tran video in existence. As the guy says in the movie, something wonderful is gonna happen.

ep 85: symphony of light

So this is what happens:

The Invid launch hella shock troopers against the returning RDF fleet.

Corg owns Scott in a dogfight and then takes out a bunch of other Alpha fighters just to drive the point home that he owns people.

The RDF fleet gets ready to fire off Neutron-S missiles to decimate the Earth's surface, because that seems like a really good idea.

The gang hangs out with the Regis and watches the battle in space. They see the Shadow Fighters launching towards Reflex Point. They appeal to the Regis for a peaceful solution. How boring would these series be if they ever came to a peaceful resolution?

Marlene asks Scott if it's possible that he could love her. She plays the "I feel so strange whenever I'm with you" card. I like when aliens use the word "strange" because they don't know the word, "horny."

Rand and Rook get in their Alphas and attack Corg. They are acting all couply now. This is clearly why they get trashed. (Never underestimate the battle prowess of a single unloved Invid simulagent.)

Corg breaks out of Rand's full nelson because Rook doesn't want to shoot him? Because he's cute? Wha? Anyway...

Scott comes back in the Beta Fighter. It's Blue Hair vs. Blue Hair to the death.

Scott beats Corg finally with some arcane mecha-fighting move. It's difficult to explain how, but, big surprise, it involves launching about THREE DOZEN CLUSTER MISSILES AT HIM.

Scott: "All this destruction means nothing." Well, unless you have stock in the Cluster Missile manufacturing companies. Then you're making out like a bandit.

The Regis decides to move on. She speaks of "a world that even now calls to me." No other discussion of what that world might be.

The RDF fleet admiral decides to launch the neutron missiles, like a big military-industrial douchebag would.

Sera and Lancer mecha up and repel the attacking Shadow Fighters. The Shadow Fighter battloids don't have much in the way of heads. Curious aesthetic decision.

The Regis absorbs all of Reflex Point and her entire race into a giant energy phoenix and leaves Earth. No packing boxes or moving trucks for this one. That is when you know you're dealing with advanced technology. The phoenix annihilates the neutron missiles and most of the RDF fleet on its way out. Isn't that convenient?

Lancer does a final concert in a slinky orange dress, singing "We Will Win." At this point, perhaps it should be redone as "We Have Won, Alien Bitches!"

Scott says his goodbyes to the gang, because he'd rather go roam around in space looking for Admiral Hunter then stay and make sweet love to Marlene, who has gotta be tired of wearing that jacket at this point. I Don't Know What's Wrong With That Guy!!!

Lunk announces that he wants a farm.

Rand and Rook talk about their future, which will probably involve babies, fishing, and occasional cleaning of the old arm cannons.

Lancer whips off the dress and reveals himself to be a guy, shocking his amassed fans. (Not only that, he's screwing a green-haired alien fighter pilot....but oh, in this universe, that's more socially acceptable.) Again, this is a pretty great moment of gender-bending to occur in a cartoon aimed at pre-teens in the '80s.

As Scott leaves the planet, Lancer closes with "The Way To Love." In my mind he comes back for an encore of Pat Benetar's "(Stop Using) Protoculture As A Weapon."

Last shot: Lancer's song playing, Scott's Alpha/Beta fighter flying off towards the moon, and somehow Scott ejects Marlene's holo-locket out of the fighter so that it falls back towards Earth. How did he do that? Maybe there is one of those little chutes for disposing waste like in airplanes? I guess that for those long trips in the Veritech they must have some way of getting rid of their poo. Kinda makes you wonder what they did in X-wings, doesn't it? (Do not, in any form, attempt to respond to the question.) Of course in Star Wars they had the astromech droids to clean up all their shit. Anyway, digressing, the closing image leaves it wide open what the hell Scott's doing with his life, as well as what Lunk's gonna do on his farm with a yappy dwarf teenager and a heartbroken hottie unemployed alien double-agent. Perhaps they'll grow tomatoes (that transform into kitties).

Preview of next episode: a return to the beginning of the Macross saga, episode 1, "Booby Trap."

And with that, my childhood ended.