Well I have to be honest..I was not too crazy about "By any means necessary" and "Signs and Portends" and even though I was warned that TKO is supposed to be the worst episode ever, I thought it was better than these two! They just felt limp....boring and the acting was stilted. I thought the fight scenes in TKO were good and Greg McKinney was very good as the boxer and Theodore Bikel was great as the Rabbi...maybe I'm crazy but "By Any Means Necessary" nearly put me to sleep and that gal who played the head of the dockworkers was really annoying . The workers holding up fake wrenches and various tools in a threatening manner was just plain silly.

Once again (I'm beginning to sound like a broken record) Peter and Andreas saved it for the two of us by being interesting to watch and fine actors...thank God for them! O'Hare was good in the scene in TKO where he talks to Ivanova about sitting Shiva, I thought it was a very real and compassionate scene without a lot of his trademark eye rolling and stiffness and Ivanova is finally becoming a little more human as well...everyone seems to be relaxing into their roles which is of course to be expected half way through the first season. It's funny to watch it and remember the friendships forming and easy banter which would become all of our favorite reasons to come to work. There was a lot of laughter on the set and that's something which carries through to this day when we see each other.

I am looking forward to this weekend, some of us are doing a convention in Burbank, The Hollywood Show, which has been billed as a Babylon 5 reunion of sorts. So far Bill Mumy, Jeff Conaway, Pat Tallman, Andrea Thompson, Julie Caitlin Brown, Steven Furst and myself are going to be there. It will be be nice to see them....

I neglected my B5 duties this weekend, I admit it...I will watch episodes tonight and get back into the groove. Saturday we filmed a "test run" of my new webisode series "Claudia's Hollywood Roadkill" where basically I interview people and rant about stuff like silly lawsuits, bizarre inventions and dumb behavior

Yesterday David took me to Rancho Palos Verdes because I had never been there... can you believe that? 27 years in LA and I had never been there! It was very windy and the ocean was rough but it was a pleasant outing. The hill top homes over looking the ocean reminded me of the vista in Laguna Beach only without the charm...loads of cookie cutter homes in Rancho Palos Verdes and a HUGE personality-less resort called Terranea....what a waste of a gorgeous piece of ocean front property, the resort is awful, condos that look like a planned community and lack luster beige lobby...

Last night I went to see Capitalism: A Love Story, which was massively depressing (like Michael Moore's other films, especially Sicko) but of course, necessary to see. I felt utter despair after watching the film..I mean what are we supposed to do at this point? Big business has been running the country for years so how can we undo something so pervasive? The only solution is a revolution and I can't see that happening anytime soon unless things keep getting worse and more people lose their jobs and homes and the 1% keep getting richer and the 99% suddenly get off their butts and rage and protest and fight and burn and rampage...and then what are we left with? A bunch of destroyed innocent small businesses, injured bystanders and cities looking like wastelands? What ARE we supposed to do about the state of our country? Write to our representatives??? Come on....they gave 700+ billion$ to bailout companies and we don't know where the money went nor were told what it would be used for...does that sound fair or democratic? NO. People diss Italy for being heavily mob influenced in their Goverment but they have paid vacations, unions to protect workers and free health care!...we're run by Wall Street financiers and lobbyists who control every decision, Congress has no power and we're going to hell in a hand basket...what's the difference? We got the short end!

One of the things which struck me the hardest was the bakery which paid everyone equally; CEO and baggers alike..and everyone made money and was happy, commune style! Hey, it works! Greed doesn't work obviously but once again..what do WE do when we are not in control, when we elect a President who is also in bed with these guys (they all are, Democrats and Republicans)....

It makes one feel helpless and powerless when your vote means nothing...what a sad, sad film. I DO recommend seeing it though. It's funny because the film says exactly what the conspiracy theorists have been saying for 40+years and everyone said they were nuts...but they weren't, they were dead on!

Too bad FDR couldn't live to see his "Second Bill" put into action, then we wouldn't have all of these problems...the last thing I will mention is that it brought up the fact that after the war Germany and Japan both got pretty much what FDR wanted for America, education for all, health care for all and jobs for everyone amongst all of the other benefits which came with the restructuring of the countries...everything he wanted for us...but the greedy in our country ruined it for the rest of us.

Very sad indeed.

p.s. the photo is from when I went to the LA Zoo...I thought it was pretty and it has nothing to do with anything in this post :)