Weekly Roundup for 21 September 2014

Alvvays. I picked up Alvvays self-titled album/gaggle of mp3s on Monday and have been listening to it almost on a loop. It takes me back to university and melodic indie-pop. Even when I am working, if Alvvays are on, my foot is tapping even if my head isn’t bobbing. It amuses my daughters to no end to see their daddy bopping along to tunes. This definitely scratches an itch for me.

Battle Beyond the Stars. On a whim, I watched the first half of this one night before bed. While the writing isn’t stellar (get it?) and the SFX are somewhat dated, it’s not half-bad. The actors do their best to instill the insipid dialogue with emotion and gravitas or levity. In the end, it’s a fun space opera remake of the Magnificent Seven . . . I’m not willing to link it to the Seven Samurai except through an intermediary. Just in case.

Avatar: the Last Airbender. And I am referring to the Nickelodeon cartoon series rather than the god-awful adaptation of it. I have really wanted to get my daughters to watch something other than Winx Club, which bothers me in that it focuses as much on the girls getting boyfriends as being heroes. I really want my daughters to have role models who don’t identify themselves through the men in their lives. While Avatar is ostensibly Aang’s story, Kitara is pretty much the strongest character in the series, and I can’t wait until they get to the episodes with Toph. They now request Avatar, though this is probably at least in part because they know their mother and I don’t like Winx Club.

I have also failed in getting them interested in Clone Wars. Me so sad.