In matters related to popular culture and music, I am usually three or four seasons behind, and in most cases, I am never caught up.  For example, Rihanna? I’ve heard about the whole domestic violence thing, but other than that umbrella-song, I haven’t heard much of her music.  “You have to listen to her stuff really loud,” Joe announced to me one day.  The he demonstrated his back-up dancer moves to “Push up on it.”  Not sure if that’s the title of the song, but that phrase is a main element of the chorus.  Thanks to Joe, we own her latest album.

I will be traveling a lot this month, and after realizing that I can only tolerate “Spy Kids 3″ and other airplane movies so much, I decided to download the whole first season of “Battlestar Galactica.” Yes, I realize the series is over, and yes, I realize it was AMAZING, but the series started during med school, and I only caught a few episodes of the first or second season before I descended into the gory depths of Step 1 and my clinical rotations, so tant pis pour moi.  Until now.  I watched the first two episodes on the flight home from Tahoe, and then proceeded to watch the rest of the season through the week.  After this weekend I polished off the miniseries that proceeded the Sci-Fi channel series.  And finished the first three episodes of season two.  What’s missing in this picture?  Nothing, except my sleep.
The problem is, almost every episode ends with a cliffhanger.  I need to know that Commander Adama pulls through!  I need to find out what happened to the pregnant Cylon-Sharon! When will Starbuck and Helo make it back to Galactica?  Why don’t we know anything about the other twelve colonies?  How did Number Six get into Baltar’s brain?  Not only is it serialized in a deliciously tantalizing way, it’s well-written, it’s plot twists are complex and engaging, it holds a mirror up to what would have been the current events of the Bush era, and it’s as nuanced as any good text.  Like all science fiction, there are obvious loopholes in it’s “science,” but it’s easy to suspend disbelief because of all the humanistic (and humanoid) drama.

Of course, BSG isn’t considered as pop culture-ish as other things I know little about, like “Dancing with the Stars” or those yellow rubber Livestrong wristband thingies (I assume a lot when I say these count as “mainstream”).  It’s more like periphery-pop culture.  But who cares, it’s really fracking good.  My only worry is that after I complete my BSG binge, I will feel hollow and lifeless inside, much the same way I felt after watching the complete “Lord of the Rings” trilogy in one sitting, or even after reading Twilight in one sitting.  Can life go on after BSG?  I need to find out.