It seems I'm going to be trying that whole "being prolific" thing with blogging. At least in the sense that for the first time since I started this blog in January I've done two posts in rather quick succession. But then again, in my last entry, I did promise my judgements on Skyfall and Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome. Since I have watched both, it's time to get on with the judging.
Of course, no blog entry would be complete without my establishing ramble about the historical context of how things came to be in my life. The James Bond movies were strangely ever-present during my childhood, perhaps because of the influence of my ownership of a Nintendo64 and my love of the timeless classic, GoldenEye. So we'll say it all kicked off for me around the mid-1990s, taking full hold around 1999 when television channel ITV went a bit James Bond happy and were showing one Bond movie a week (or maybe a day, I can't entirely remember). I pretty much religiously taped these movies, watching and absorbing useless trivia facts and favourite lines ("Don't touch that...! That's my lunch." - GoldenEye, Q to Bond). Pierce Brosnan was the definitive Bond as far as I was concerned and I think his movies will remain my favourites. That being said, I am quite enjoying the new Daniel Craig movies.
Now, just for a moment, let's have a little discourse on the major differences between all these movies. You see, in last ten years or so, movie studios have gone a bit reboot mad. On some levels, it's been brilliant - Christopher Nolan's trilogy of Batman movies - and on others, not so much (Superman Returns. Sorry, Brandon Routh. But we loved you in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World). But the James Bond franchise is one of those Marmite Principle things - people tend to love it or hate it. Of course there's grey area ambiguity where people neither love nor hate, but for the sake of argument and discourse it's the Marmite Principle. So in 2006, when Eon Productions where gearing up for Bond 21, they decided to reboot - take the series in a different direction. Dispose of the gadgets and make it grittier. Make Bond get his hands thoroughly dirty. And I'd say, personally, I think it worked. I enjoyed Casino Royale. I did miss Q and all the wonderful gadgets (I still do), but it seems, with Skyfall, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel on that score.
Judgement time!
I'll start with this - I really enjoyed Skyfall. It was almost grand, but still gritty - the villain, brilliantly portrayed by Javier Bardem, wasn't just some power-crazy megalomaniac, but by gods could he bring MI6 to their proverbial knees. The premise of his character, Silva, is that he's a former MI6 agent with connections to M's past. He's deranged and he wants to kill M. Naturally, 007 turns up and decides to be a snag in that little plan. What ensues is your standard fare of chaos, mayhem, one-liners and things going *BOOM*. And very awesomely so.
What's interesting about Skyfall is it's sense of the past. 2012 is the fiftieth anniversary of the release of Dr No, the first ever Bond movie. So naturally, there's a lot of cheeky references to past movies - especially the classic Aston Martin DB5. But more than that - the scriptwriters not only interwove those little references to the last fifty years of Bond movies, but they also delved into the chequered pasts of our beloved characters - James Bond himself and his boss, the ever-wonderful M. Once again, Judi Dench is on excellent form as Bond's superior. The relationship between the two characters is explored in a lot greater depth in this movie, once more linking in to the theme of the past being thrown at us throughout the entire movie.
On a happy note, the movie sees the return of Q. This time, it's the youthful Ben Whishaw taking the mantle of MI6 Quartermaster. Now let's face it - Desmond Llewellyn will forever be the definitive Q. John Cleese did a sterling job living up to the legend after Llewellyn unfortunate passing in 1999 and from what I saw in Skyfall, Ben Whishaw will be bringing his own unique charm and wit to the role. So while Skyfall does dwell a lot in the past, there's a glimmer of hope for the future - although Q quips "Were you expecting an exploding pen? We don't go in for that sort of thing anymore", I hope to see some level of plausible gadgetry being developed by Whishaw's Q Branch in future movies. He's also a bit of hacker/computer wiz and was given quite the expanded role in Skyfall compared to the role of Q in previous movies. Again, pinning one or two hopes on this young whipper-snapper.
In overall conclusion, Skyfall was a very much enjoyable movie.
Now, Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome.
Loyal Colonials and Frakkin' Toasters everywhere have been champing at the bit since the demise of prequel series Caprica for the promised release of prequel series Blood and Chrome. We've been through a lot in that time. A promise of a television release downgraded to webseries and constant delays and setbacks. But finally, last night, episodes one and two were posted on YouTube! Thank you, Machinima Prime!
Watch them here: Episode 1 and Episode 2.
First off, I did enjoy the episodes. Short and sweet, but what do you expect from a webseries? And I'll be honest, I was very sceptical about Blood and Chrome. It was Luke Pasqualino, the actor chosen to play Bill Adama. For one thing - where the frak is his gruff voice? But credit to the boy I watched in Skins, he actually pulls it off!
The premise for those rooks just joining the worlds of Battlestar Galatica is thus: it's year ten of the Cylon War. Fresh out of the academy, Ensign William Adama has been assigned to Battlestar Galactica, one of the fiercist (and newest at this point) battlestars in the Colonial Fleet. Adama is a typical rook - he's cocky, eager and wants to rack up a quick kill count and few dozen medals, then return to Caprica a hero.
Of course, nothing ever happens that way. War is Hell, remember?
Adama is quickly put in his place and assigned to pilot a Raptor, not the Viper he had been hoping for. His ECO, Lieutenant Coker Fasjovik, is bitter and war-weary, coming to the end of his mandatory second tour of duty. He wants out, a concept Adama can't quite wrap his head around. I'm intrigued to see how this plays out through the series.
Now the budget isn't as big as the re-imagined 2004 series. There's a lot of CGI backgrounds, which doesn't necessarily bother me - it's the changes they've made that irk my brain a little bit. Galactica is one of my favourite ships, it's been discussed before. So when I see what they've done to the interior of my beloved Battlestar with their CGI, I'm a little confused. I can easily explain it away - by the 2004 series, Galactica's been in service for forty years. There's probably been endless updates and refits. So while it irks me, I can get over it.
There's not a huge lot to say about Blood and Chrome for the moment. So far, I like it. I might try and make it a weekly thing to keep this blog updated on my growing opinions of the series, might not. We'll see. Regardless, by the end of Blood and Chrome, I'll likely have a lot to say. I might not say it week to week, but by gods I'll be saying something eventually. For now, it's good. Carry on.
Well, that's all for today. Until next time...
(Song of the Mind: Immigrant Song (Cover) - Karen O, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross)
Saturday, 10 November 2012
Thursday, 8 November 2012
I'm not a psychopath, Anderson, I'm a high-functioning sociopath, do your research
Once again, I've been giving the blog the unfortunate (and very unintentional) silent treatment. The real world, life, interfering, not to mention the ability to procrastinate and put things off that one acquires as a university student that never seems to go away. Not until you have someone to disappoint or have reached a point of desperation that you realise you really need to change something in your lifestyle. Oh my gods this has really turned into something rather morbid now, hasn't it? Okay, so this isn't actually going to be something morbid. In fact, I'm here to rave about something that I've just come to love - finally, after months (and possibly years) of being told I'll love it, I have caved and watched series one and two of Sherlock.
Okay, I say caved. I make it sound like it was a difficult decision to reach. It really wasn't. I'd been intrigued to watch Sherlock, but naturally this curiosity only struck me too late, when Sherlock was off the air and off BBC's fabled iPlayer. Luckily, those kind of obstacles don't stop DVD rentals/friends loaning you the DVDs they have in their possession. Through these combination of factors, I have quickly fallen in love with Sherlock.
Though whenever I try and whistle or hum the theme tune, I always end up with the theme tune to Dirk Gently instead. Ah well.
So if you haven't guessed (or watched the show already), the title of this blog is a line from the first episode, "A Study in Pink". Believe me, if you haven't seen it, this is just one of many quotable lines from the episode - and a lot of them aimed at Anderson, the irritating forensics man. Now I'd just like to take a second to examine my own words, how I've just said that Anderson is irritating...the entire set-up of the show makes Sherlock Holmes (played absolutely outstandingly by Benedict Cumberbatch) out to be this incredibly irritating smart-arse. And yet by virtue of being the main character (and being utterly, utterly brilliant), you forgive him and let things slide. Even if he did come to your house and deduce every last one of your dirty little secrets just from looking at the place.
Let's face it, if he showed up at your house you be a little bit flattered. It's Sherlock frakking Holmes after all!
But we can't go giving all the credit to just Sherlock Holmes. Sure, he's a genius (and more than a little bit of an ass about it) and he solves crimes no one else can, but as much as he'd love to, he couldn't do it alone. So he has a whole host of supporting characters - from the obvious Doctor John Watson (Martin Freeman), the long-suffering Detective Inspector Lestrade (Rupert Graves) and on occasion, though usually not being very supportive, his own brother, Mycroft Holmes (Mark Gatiss).
I'll be honest, that whole paragraph was mostly to get to Mycroft Holmes. Mark Gatiss, one of the co-creators and writers of the show, well...he's brilliant. On his own as Mycroft, Gatiss is wonderful to watch - put in a room with his on-screen brother, it's even more fantastic. It's funny, it's something I find hard to put into words. You really just have to watch it to fully understand the beauty of it all.
So there we have it really. As is customary, I'm going to avoid going into too many details due to the risk of spoilers. But rest assured, Sherlock is brilliant and everyone who told me to go and watch it...well, they get to say "I told you so".
It's half past midnight here and I've reached that funny feeling that there was so much more I wanted to say...it might relate to tomorrow's impending web release of Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome, but I think I'll save judgement until watching it. Though it might be a while, given that friends are dragging me to see Skyfall, the new James Bond movie, tomorrow. I say drag. I'm going quite willingly really. Say what you will about James Bond being a misogynistic relic, I enjoy the movies as mindless violence and fun. So more to report on those two later.
Speaking of reserving judgement, Star Wars and Disney. Any self-respecting geek could hardly have missed the news the last couple of days - Disney have bought Lucasfilm and promised us Episodes VII, VIII and IX. It's curious, because I remember when Star Wars was re-released in the late 1990s (when I first came to love the franchise) and I swear someone told me that there were going to be nine "episodes". So the news that we will have three new films to enjoy isn't too surprising. We'll just have to wait to see if Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm will prove to be as sound an investment as their decision to buy Marvel Studios.
Well then. It appears this is all I have to report for now. Hopefully in the next couple of days a new post will materialise with my judgements on Skyfall and Blood and Chrome. Until then...get out there and watch Sherlock if you haven't done it already!
Okay, I say caved. I make it sound like it was a difficult decision to reach. It really wasn't. I'd been intrigued to watch Sherlock, but naturally this curiosity only struck me too late, when Sherlock was off the air and off BBC's fabled iPlayer. Luckily, those kind of obstacles don't stop DVD rentals/friends loaning you the DVDs they have in their possession. Through these combination of factors, I have quickly fallen in love with Sherlock.
Though whenever I try and whistle or hum the theme tune, I always end up with the theme tune to Dirk Gently instead. Ah well.
So if you haven't guessed (or watched the show already), the title of this blog is a line from the first episode, "A Study in Pink". Believe me, if you haven't seen it, this is just one of many quotable lines from the episode - and a lot of them aimed at Anderson, the irritating forensics man. Now I'd just like to take a second to examine my own words, how I've just said that Anderson is irritating...the entire set-up of the show makes Sherlock Holmes (played absolutely outstandingly by Benedict Cumberbatch) out to be this incredibly irritating smart-arse. And yet by virtue of being the main character (and being utterly, utterly brilliant), you forgive him and let things slide. Even if he did come to your house and deduce every last one of your dirty little secrets just from looking at the place.
Let's face it, if he showed up at your house you be a little bit flattered. It's Sherlock frakking Holmes after all!
But we can't go giving all the credit to just Sherlock Holmes. Sure, he's a genius (and more than a little bit of an ass about it) and he solves crimes no one else can, but as much as he'd love to, he couldn't do it alone. So he has a whole host of supporting characters - from the obvious Doctor John Watson (Martin Freeman), the long-suffering Detective Inspector Lestrade (Rupert Graves) and on occasion, though usually not being very supportive, his own brother, Mycroft Holmes (Mark Gatiss).
I'll be honest, that whole paragraph was mostly to get to Mycroft Holmes. Mark Gatiss, one of the co-creators and writers of the show, well...he's brilliant. On his own as Mycroft, Gatiss is wonderful to watch - put in a room with his on-screen brother, it's even more fantastic. It's funny, it's something I find hard to put into words. You really just have to watch it to fully understand the beauty of it all.
So there we have it really. As is customary, I'm going to avoid going into too many details due to the risk of spoilers. But rest assured, Sherlock is brilliant and everyone who told me to go and watch it...well, they get to say "I told you so".
It's half past midnight here and I've reached that funny feeling that there was so much more I wanted to say...it might relate to tomorrow's impending web release of Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome, but I think I'll save judgement until watching it. Though it might be a while, given that friends are dragging me to see Skyfall, the new James Bond movie, tomorrow. I say drag. I'm going quite willingly really. Say what you will about James Bond being a misogynistic relic, I enjoy the movies as mindless violence and fun. So more to report on those two later.
Speaking of reserving judgement, Star Wars and Disney. Any self-respecting geek could hardly have missed the news the last couple of days - Disney have bought Lucasfilm and promised us Episodes VII, VIII and IX. It's curious, because I remember when Star Wars was re-released in the late 1990s (when I first came to love the franchise) and I swear someone told me that there were going to be nine "episodes". So the news that we will have three new films to enjoy isn't too surprising. We'll just have to wait to see if Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm will prove to be as sound an investment as their decision to buy Marvel Studios.
Well then. It appears this is all I have to report for now. Hopefully in the next couple of days a new post will materialise with my judgements on Skyfall and Blood and Chrome. Until then...get out there and watch Sherlock if you haven't done it already!
Sunday, 14 October 2012
Curled Up Next to the Fire: A Quantum Murder
It's that old temporal mechanics trick again. It's been a little while since I've done my little "literary" segment of the blog. Such a little while, in fact, that seasons have changed and the title has come full circle from spring/summer's "Sitting Under the Shade of the Tree" to autumn/winter's "Curled Up Next to the Fire". I mean it is rather a tad chilly down here. If I had a fire and the time to relax curled up next to it, I would. But alas and begone with these lamentations, I have a book to talk about.
Today I'm going to babble about A Quantum Murder by British sci-fi author Peter F. Hamilton. First, a tiny bit of rambling context.
I've been trying to expand my sci-fi reading horizons for a good while now. I'll be honest, I watch far more sci-fi than I read. The journey began in 2007, as I was going to university, when I obtained William Gibson's irrefutably genius debut novel, Neuromancer. Since then, the road has been slow going, winding, but in the last year or two, I've been making far more steady progress. And in all the hours (cumulative, not continuous) I've spent in the little sci-fi section in the local Waterstone's (I refuse to adhere to their new spelling/punctuation thing, it's stupid), my eyes eventually came to continually rest upon the second book in the Greg Mandel Series and its intriguing title, A Quantum Murder.
Now I'm a little bit on the borderline of being OCD. I've reached a point where I can't read books in a series out of sync, not without good reason. So when I picked up A Quantum Murder, read the enticing blurb on the back then caught the part that said "Volume Two", I cursed and had to put it down. Luckily volume one, Mindstar Rising, was right next to it.
In classic whimsical style, I didn't blog about Mindstar Rising, though it was a very enjoyable book. So it gets this honourable mention before I blab on about A Quantum Murder.
Okay, so we're down with rambling context. Time for the relevant context.
From dates given in A Quantum Murder, I've surmised that the book is set around 2044, in a slightly broken England. It's decades since an event called the Warming caused sea levels to rise and changed not only coastline of Britain, but the entire climate as well. It's now a tropical paradise...or would be if the entire country wasn't emerging from a decade of communist rule under the People's Socialist Party (PSP), who aren't the novel's villains but their legacy and villainy pervade throughout.
The novel focuses on the murder of one Doctor Edward Kitchener, a renowned "quantum cosmologist" and general eccentric physics genius. It's one of those impossible murders - the security at his remote lab facility was too great for any of his potential enemies/rivals to get in. Which leaves his six resident students as the only likely suspects.
One of Kitchener's former students, a prominent scientist for British megacorporation Event Horizon, pulls some strings (namely runs to his boss, teenage billionaire Julia Evans) and Greg Mandel is brought in as a consultant. Greg is an empath - courtesy of a funky do-da called a neurohormone gland put into his head by the British Army, he is able to sense people's emotions. Not quite psychic but close enough to that he's able to sense whether or not any of the students have committed the murder.
Now it's probably been mentioned that I like superpowers and superpower related stuff. So to find a sci-fi novel set in Britain with a psychic protagonist...I was intrigued. After reading and thoroughly enjoying Mindstar Rising, I was looking forward to A Quantum Murder and I wasn't disappointed. A Quantum Murder was on a slightly smaller scale than Mindstar Rising, less jetting around and all, but there was plenty of psychic powers, intrigue and action to keep me occupied. But one of the most fascinating parts for me is England itself, the way Peter F. Hamilton manages to make this mundane country I live in sound so exotic and broken. It's been noted before when I've blabbed on about China Miéville and William Gibson, I have this tendency to get wrapped up in the setting. When a writer can create an incredible atmosphere and sense of place, unique even if I've been there and know exactly what it's all about, well, that's something a little bit special to me. Hamilton's 2040s broken (not dystopian, not anymore anyway) England is an engrossing place. Never has Peterborough (headquarters of Event Horizon and practically the focal point for England's fledgling economy) sounded so...well, important. It's never felt really...on the map for me (sorry, Peterborough. Nothing personal).
In some form of conclusion, I really enjoyed A Quantum Murder. There's one more novel in the Greg Mandel Series - The Nano Flower. Depending on how that ends, I might be sad that there aren't any more Greg Mandel novels. I've been rather enjoying them.
Right, time to stoke the fire and get reading so there can be a next time...
Today I'm going to babble about A Quantum Murder by British sci-fi author Peter F. Hamilton. First, a tiny bit of rambling context.
I've been trying to expand my sci-fi reading horizons for a good while now. I'll be honest, I watch far more sci-fi than I read. The journey began in 2007, as I was going to university, when I obtained William Gibson's irrefutably genius debut novel, Neuromancer. Since then, the road has been slow going, winding, but in the last year or two, I've been making far more steady progress. And in all the hours (cumulative, not continuous) I've spent in the little sci-fi section in the local Waterstone's (I refuse to adhere to their new spelling/punctuation thing, it's stupid), my eyes eventually came to continually rest upon the second book in the Greg Mandel Series and its intriguing title, A Quantum Murder.
Now I'm a little bit on the borderline of being OCD. I've reached a point where I can't read books in a series out of sync, not without good reason. So when I picked up A Quantum Murder, read the enticing blurb on the back then caught the part that said "Volume Two", I cursed and had to put it down. Luckily volume one, Mindstar Rising, was right next to it.
In classic whimsical style, I didn't blog about Mindstar Rising, though it was a very enjoyable book. So it gets this honourable mention before I blab on about A Quantum Murder.
Okay, so we're down with rambling context. Time for the relevant context.
From dates given in A Quantum Murder, I've surmised that the book is set around 2044, in a slightly broken England. It's decades since an event called the Warming caused sea levels to rise and changed not only coastline of Britain, but the entire climate as well. It's now a tropical paradise...or would be if the entire country wasn't emerging from a decade of communist rule under the People's Socialist Party (PSP), who aren't the novel's villains but their legacy and villainy pervade throughout.
The novel focuses on the murder of one Doctor Edward Kitchener, a renowned "quantum cosmologist" and general eccentric physics genius. It's one of those impossible murders - the security at his remote lab facility was too great for any of his potential enemies/rivals to get in. Which leaves his six resident students as the only likely suspects.
One of Kitchener's former students, a prominent scientist for British megacorporation Event Horizon, pulls some strings (namely runs to his boss, teenage billionaire Julia Evans) and Greg Mandel is brought in as a consultant. Greg is an empath - courtesy of a funky do-da called a neurohormone gland put into his head by the British Army, he is able to sense people's emotions. Not quite psychic but close enough to that he's able to sense whether or not any of the students have committed the murder.
Now it's probably been mentioned that I like superpowers and superpower related stuff. So to find a sci-fi novel set in Britain with a psychic protagonist...I was intrigued. After reading and thoroughly enjoying Mindstar Rising, I was looking forward to A Quantum Murder and I wasn't disappointed. A Quantum Murder was on a slightly smaller scale than Mindstar Rising, less jetting around and all, but there was plenty of psychic powers, intrigue and action to keep me occupied. But one of the most fascinating parts for me is England itself, the way Peter F. Hamilton manages to make this mundane country I live in sound so exotic and broken. It's been noted before when I've blabbed on about China Miéville and William Gibson, I have this tendency to get wrapped up in the setting. When a writer can create an incredible atmosphere and sense of place, unique even if I've been there and know exactly what it's all about, well, that's something a little bit special to me. Hamilton's 2040s broken (not dystopian, not anymore anyway) England is an engrossing place. Never has Peterborough (headquarters of Event Horizon and practically the focal point for England's fledgling economy) sounded so...well, important. It's never felt really...on the map for me (sorry, Peterborough. Nothing personal).
In some form of conclusion, I really enjoyed A Quantum Murder. There's one more novel in the Greg Mandel Series - The Nano Flower. Depending on how that ends, I might be sad that there aren't any more Greg Mandel novels. I've been rather enjoying them.
Right, time to stoke the fire and get reading so there can be a next time...
Tuesday, 9 October 2012
Life. Don't talk to me about life
I'm going with the wisdom of Marvin the Paranoid Android today because, well, Life has been really rather irritating lately with its consistent need to get in the way of pretty much everything. I've been meaning to update this blog for a long while but something always seem to come up. Once upon a many Moon ago, I never understood how people couldn't keep up with these kinds of things. In my youthful naivety, I thought it was easy. I am learning just how little I knew back then...
Anyway...
There's been a couple of things occurring in Life lately that I mean to babble about. The first being a subject that, I'll be perfectly honest, I never, ever thought in a thousand Moons that I would be blogging about. It's an event that occurred on Saturday. I went to the theatre. The proper theatre, with stages, plays, actors and all that jazz. I went to the theatre...to see a Jane Austen play.
Honest to gods. This happened. Something else happened...
...I...enjoyed it.
Okay, so a little historical context might help here. I've never read Jane Austen. It just never seemed like my cup of tea - I like spaceships, epic space battles, things going *BOOM* in spectacular ways. So to be sitting in a theatre watching a stage adaptation of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park was not a natural state of being for me. But it's what happens when my beloved Oracle and I make very, very fast with one of the actresses (henceforth known by the call sign "Ember"), who portrayed a smouldering bad girl. Basically. She was cool and when she said "You have to come and see the show"(/words to that effect), one can hardly say no.
This is how I ended up watching Mansfield Park. And thoroughly enjoying it. Now, okay, it was 90% Ember's fault for being such a brilliant bad girl character, but...well, I realised something that was epitomised by something someone later said in the pub after the show - Jane Austen is basically all about the sex. It may be hidden beneath layers and layers of pomp and propriety, but dear gods...the majority of the characters spent the whole time trying to get into each other's pants. And for some reason, that tense undercurrent is extremely compelling. I've always been sucked in by intrigue amongst characters - let's face it, half of the fun of reading the Song of Ice and Fire series is all the back-stabbing and betrayal that goes on. Then the copious coitus.
So yeah...Jane Austen gets a thumbs up. Kudos, Ember. And Oracle. Between the two of you, you compelled me to enjoy Jane Austen.
Anyway, back in the world I normally inhabit, I watched The Cabin in the Woods.
Initially, I had not been too enticed to watch this film, despite the fact that Joss Whedon was involved. Yes, I'm pretty much a Joss Whedon fanboy. I have faith that if he's involved in it, I will watch it. But The Cabin in the Woods was a horror movie. I don't watch horror movies. I scare easily. Plus nowadays, most horror movies seem intent on just grossing you out with gore and torture. Well, actually, I think they're shifting to the psychological end of the spectrum again, but in the early 2000s it was all about the gore and the torture.
With all this in mind, The Cabin in the Woods looked like something I should have probably avoided. As is the theme for this blog entry, I was proven very much mistaken.
Though it must be said, there's lots of blood. I'd say it's easy on the gore, not as much as there could be, but bucket loads of blood.
The beauty, I think, with The Cabin in the Woods, lies in not knowing what it's about and thus going into it thinking it'll just be your average slasher flick. I had been told, long ago, that it wasn't, but my informant failed to elaborate. In his failure to elaborate, I enjoyed the film so, so much more when I discovered what it was all about. So in this vain...I'm not actually going to say much more. Other than it's a brilliant film, Fran Kranz steals the show (sorry ladies, Chris Hemsworth is pretty much eye candy here) and for a horror movie...it can be genuinely hilarious. So go forth and watch it!
And finally, I would like to touch upon something that is confusing and befuddling the living frak out of me since I first discovered it.
Ladies and menfolk...
...Gangnam style.
It's one of those things that was floating around the Internet and didn't quite know what it was. I had no desire to, really, until I found a video of MythBusters' Grant Imahara parodying Gangnam style. As a fan of MythBusters I had to investigate.
I found this.
And for some reason, I can't help but watch it. I still don't understand entirely what the frak is going on, only that this is mildly addictive and dear gods that tune is going to be in my head for the rest of the day!
Luckily this is one of those half-past midnight, nocturnal writing incidents, so the rest of the day isn't likely to be too much longer.
Oh, but this might be the most amusing parody - *Klingon* style!
So there we have it for my latest mad ramble through the scattered neurological chaos of my synaptic processes. It's nearly one o'clock in the morning and I've been talking about Gangnam style, so time for bed. But as my final thought, something to flush the addictive Gangnam style away.
(Song of the Mind: Learn to Fly - Foo Fighters)
Anyway...
There's been a couple of things occurring in Life lately that I mean to babble about. The first being a subject that, I'll be perfectly honest, I never, ever thought in a thousand Moons that I would be blogging about. It's an event that occurred on Saturday. I went to the theatre. The proper theatre, with stages, plays, actors and all that jazz. I went to the theatre...to see a Jane Austen play.
Honest to gods. This happened. Something else happened...
...I...enjoyed it.
Okay, so a little historical context might help here. I've never read Jane Austen. It just never seemed like my cup of tea - I like spaceships, epic space battles, things going *BOOM* in spectacular ways. So to be sitting in a theatre watching a stage adaptation of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park was not a natural state of being for me. But it's what happens when my beloved Oracle and I make very, very fast with one of the actresses (henceforth known by the call sign "Ember"), who portrayed a smouldering bad girl. Basically. She was cool and when she said "You have to come and see the show"(/words to that effect), one can hardly say no.
This is how I ended up watching Mansfield Park. And thoroughly enjoying it. Now, okay, it was 90% Ember's fault for being such a brilliant bad girl character, but...well, I realised something that was epitomised by something someone later said in the pub after the show - Jane Austen is basically all about the sex. It may be hidden beneath layers and layers of pomp and propriety, but dear gods...the majority of the characters spent the whole time trying to get into each other's pants. And for some reason, that tense undercurrent is extremely compelling. I've always been sucked in by intrigue amongst characters - let's face it, half of the fun of reading the Song of Ice and Fire series is all the back-stabbing and betrayal that goes on. Then the copious coitus.
So yeah...Jane Austen gets a thumbs up. Kudos, Ember. And Oracle. Between the two of you, you compelled me to enjoy Jane Austen.
Anyway, back in the world I normally inhabit, I watched The Cabin in the Woods.
Initially, I had not been too enticed to watch this film, despite the fact that Joss Whedon was involved. Yes, I'm pretty much a Joss Whedon fanboy. I have faith that if he's involved in it, I will watch it. But The Cabin in the Woods was a horror movie. I don't watch horror movies. I scare easily. Plus nowadays, most horror movies seem intent on just grossing you out with gore and torture. Well, actually, I think they're shifting to the psychological end of the spectrum again, but in the early 2000s it was all about the gore and the torture.
With all this in mind, The Cabin in the Woods looked like something I should have probably avoided. As is the theme for this blog entry, I was proven very much mistaken.
Though it must be said, there's lots of blood. I'd say it's easy on the gore, not as much as there could be, but bucket loads of blood.
The beauty, I think, with The Cabin in the Woods, lies in not knowing what it's about and thus going into it thinking it'll just be your average slasher flick. I had been told, long ago, that it wasn't, but my informant failed to elaborate. In his failure to elaborate, I enjoyed the film so, so much more when I discovered what it was all about. So in this vain...I'm not actually going to say much more. Other than it's a brilliant film, Fran Kranz steals the show (sorry ladies, Chris Hemsworth is pretty much eye candy here) and for a horror movie...it can be genuinely hilarious. So go forth and watch it!
And finally, I would like to touch upon something that is confusing and befuddling the living frak out of me since I first discovered it.
Ladies and menfolk...
...Gangnam style.
It's one of those things that was floating around the Internet and didn't quite know what it was. I had no desire to, really, until I found a video of MythBusters' Grant Imahara parodying Gangnam style. As a fan of MythBusters I had to investigate.
I found this.
And for some reason, I can't help but watch it. I still don't understand entirely what the frak is going on, only that this is mildly addictive and dear gods that tune is going to be in my head for the rest of the day!
Luckily this is one of those half-past midnight, nocturnal writing incidents, so the rest of the day isn't likely to be too much longer.
Oh, but this might be the most amusing parody - *Klingon* style!
So there we have it for my latest mad ramble through the scattered neurological chaos of my synaptic processes. It's nearly one o'clock in the morning and I've been talking about Gangnam style, so time for bed. But as my final thought, something to flush the addictive Gangnam style away.
(Song of the Mind: Learn to Fly - Foo Fighters)
Thursday, 20 September 2012
I aim to misbehave
Some months ago I made note of what I considered a startlingly oversight in the geek community - the lack of a day specifically devoted to the enjoyment and honouring of Firefly. I proposed that we (the geek community) appoint a specific day as "Shiny Day", whereby we proudly display our Browncoat roots and sing merry renditions of "The Hero of Canton". So today, the tenth anniversary of Firefly first being aired in the United States, is my inaugural Shiny Day. All Browncoats are welcome to join in this celebration.
To honour this day, I'm wearing my Browncoats t-shirt that I obtained from Quantum Mechanix, one of my first purchases from that website, along with the River Tam maquette (alas, sold out now. Sorry Browncoats). Later on, I intend to sit down with my dinner and watch Serenity, the film that kick-started my journey into the world of Firefly and by far still my favourite movie of all time.
But right now, it's time for a list. To honour the inaugural Shiny Day, here are my top ten Firefly/Serenity moments.
10. "Yeah...that went well." (Firefly, 1x11 "Trash")
For the ladies, this may have been the best way to open an episode - Nathan Fillion sitting naked on a rock in the middle of the desert. As we learn later in the episode, our dashing Captain Tightpants has lost the aforementioned pants as a result of his double-crossing snake of a "wife", Saffron. But in the immediacy of the opening of the episode...it's a brilliant hook. For me, however, it's his opening line of dialogue. "Yeah...that went well." I myself have used it on many an occasion when things have gone distinctly less than well. By far, one of the best opening moments of Firefly.
9. Too Much Hair! (Firefly, 1x07 "Jaynestown")
Firefly is full of brilliant, gigglesome moments and Shepherd Book's frizzy Einstein haircut definitely ranks among the best. While it doesn't steal the episode, it definitely steals the scenes it's in, especially our first glimpse - which was enough to make River run for a smuggling hold! According to her babbling, "his brains are in terrible danger". His brains aren't in terrible danger. Not from the hair anyway...
8. "Wash, tell me I'm pretty." (Firefly, 1x13 "Heart of Gold")
It's a brief moment but nonetheless one of my favourite lines of dialogue. Alan Tudyk and Jewel Staite's exchange is just...well...I just love it. Mostly Alan Tudyk's delivery of "Were I unwed, I would take you in a manly fashion". Wash was a wonderful character and had many, many opportunities to showcase his brilliance and shoot-off some great one-liners and for me, this is one of them. Even though it wasn't necessarily a one-liner moment.
7. The Wash-Mal Torture Argument (Firefly, 1x10 "War Stories")
Conventional logic generally holds that there's a time and a place for everything. When in the midst of being tortured by a sadistic mob boss aboard his space station, it's clearly time to discuss why your Captain ordered his first mate not to marry the pilot. An order she disobeyed, naturally. While a little harrowing, seeing our beloved characters tortured, their argument over Mal's positions on shipboard romances provide genuine humour and much-needed levity to this slightly disconcerting moment.
6. The Hero of Canton (Firefly, 1x07 "Jaynestown")
"Jaynestown" makes another appearance on our list, but this time it's the Hero of Canton. The concept of Jayne Cobb being a hero and...well...the song. The Hero of Canton, the Man They Call Jayne. The episode takes an incredible, surreal turn when the crew, happily minding their own business in a bar in Canton, discover through the medium of song that Jayne Cobb, the selfish, brutish and questionably loyal "public relations" man is Robin Hood-style hero. The subtext the episode has about the truth behind heroics is great and all, but it's the song that steals the show.
5. "Also, I can kill you with my brain." (Firefly, 1x11 "Trash")
Our second entry for "Trash" is one of my favourite River Tam moments ever. After Jayne has gave his spine a bit of a thrashing, he's treated by Simon, who learned through River's mind-reading that Jayne sold them out to the Alliance two episodes before, on the planet Ariel. Simon proceeds to give Jayne a speech on how he (Simon) will never harm him as long as he's a patient, then leaves. River lingers a moment, then utters her line in a way that approaches cute...if the threat weren't pretty damn real and mildly terrifying. Especially after what we saw her do in "War Stories" with one pistol and her eyes closed...
4. "If you take sexual advantage of her..." (Firefly, 1x06 "Our Mrs Reynolds")
Partly, it's the speech Shepherd Book gives Mal, but mostly it's what's in the picture. That lingering moment with Book poking out of the passageway, giving Mal one final reminder of "the Special Hell", before promptly disappearing again. It makes me giggle no end. But we can't forget the speech that started it all, where Book warns him of the special level of Hell he will be going to if he sleeps with his "wife", Saffron. One of Shepherd Book's finest moments.
3. "What was that?" (Serenity - Big Damn Movie)
The movie has drawn to a close. A patched up Serenity flies off through storm clouds and into space amidst wonderfully uplifting music. It hurtles off into the Black to continue its adventures with a new lease of life, a fresh lick of paint, all fixed and ready to...oh wait, something falls off! It flies towards the screen, we fade to black and Mal's voice asks "What was that?" A perfect echo of his first line of the movie (where, again, something flies unceremoniously off the ship) and...just the best end to the movie. Pure Joss Whedon brilliance. One of the reasons I loved this movie so much - this final moment, for me, seems to epitomise everything about Firefly: no matter what, there's always a catch, something's always falling apart, but Serenity never stops flying.
2. "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!" (Firefly, 1x01 "Serenity")
It may cause some controversy that this moment isn't number one, but...well, I'll explain later. But nonetheless, it was a close race as Wash's introductory scene is pure genius. Nothing sums up Hoban Washburne better than this scene. I want to make a descent paragraph out of this but...well, it speaks for itself. Pure, solid gold genius.
1. The First Rule of Flying (Serenity - Big Damn Movie)
I'm a hopelessly sappy, sentimental romantic. I hold my hand up and admit this proudly. For this reason, my favourite ever Firefly/Serenity moment is Mal's final speech, delivered to River Tam. And I hold to the belief that Mal has it right. "Love. You can learn all the math in the 'Verse, you take a boat in the air you don't love she'll shake you off just as sure as the turn of the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurting before she keens. Makes her home." I can deliver this line with far, far too much heartfelt conviction. And soon, I shall have an awesome print with that quotation on it. Thank you, QMx!
So there you have it for my inaugural Shiny Day. I'm off to cook then watch Serenity. I aim to misbehave :)
To honour this day, I'm wearing my Browncoats t-shirt that I obtained from Quantum Mechanix, one of my first purchases from that website, along with the River Tam maquette (alas, sold out now. Sorry Browncoats). Later on, I intend to sit down with my dinner and watch Serenity, the film that kick-started my journey into the world of Firefly and by far still my favourite movie of all time.
But right now, it's time for a list. To honour the inaugural Shiny Day, here are my top ten Firefly/Serenity moments.
10. "Yeah...that went well." (Firefly, 1x11 "Trash")
For the ladies, this may have been the best way to open an episode - Nathan Fillion sitting naked on a rock in the middle of the desert. As we learn later in the episode, our dashing Captain Tightpants has lost the aforementioned pants as a result of his double-crossing snake of a "wife", Saffron. But in the immediacy of the opening of the episode...it's a brilliant hook. For me, however, it's his opening line of dialogue. "Yeah...that went well." I myself have used it on many an occasion when things have gone distinctly less than well. By far, one of the best opening moments of Firefly.
9. Too Much Hair! (Firefly, 1x07 "Jaynestown")
Firefly is full of brilliant, gigglesome moments and Shepherd Book's frizzy Einstein haircut definitely ranks among the best. While it doesn't steal the episode, it definitely steals the scenes it's in, especially our first glimpse - which was enough to make River run for a smuggling hold! According to her babbling, "his brains are in terrible danger". His brains aren't in terrible danger. Not from the hair anyway...
8. "Wash, tell me I'm pretty." (Firefly, 1x13 "Heart of Gold")
It's a brief moment but nonetheless one of my favourite lines of dialogue. Alan Tudyk and Jewel Staite's exchange is just...well...I just love it. Mostly Alan Tudyk's delivery of "Were I unwed, I would take you in a manly fashion". Wash was a wonderful character and had many, many opportunities to showcase his brilliance and shoot-off some great one-liners and for me, this is one of them. Even though it wasn't necessarily a one-liner moment.
7. The Wash-Mal Torture Argument (Firefly, 1x10 "War Stories")
Conventional logic generally holds that there's a time and a place for everything. When in the midst of being tortured by a sadistic mob boss aboard his space station, it's clearly time to discuss why your Captain ordered his first mate not to marry the pilot. An order she disobeyed, naturally. While a little harrowing, seeing our beloved characters tortured, their argument over Mal's positions on shipboard romances provide genuine humour and much-needed levity to this slightly disconcerting moment.
6. The Hero of Canton (Firefly, 1x07 "Jaynestown")
"Jaynestown" makes another appearance on our list, but this time it's the Hero of Canton. The concept of Jayne Cobb being a hero and...well...the song. The Hero of Canton, the Man They Call Jayne. The episode takes an incredible, surreal turn when the crew, happily minding their own business in a bar in Canton, discover through the medium of song that Jayne Cobb, the selfish, brutish and questionably loyal "public relations" man is Robin Hood-style hero. The subtext the episode has about the truth behind heroics is great and all, but it's the song that steals the show.
5. "Also, I can kill you with my brain." (Firefly, 1x11 "Trash")
Our second entry for "Trash" is one of my favourite River Tam moments ever. After Jayne has gave his spine a bit of a thrashing, he's treated by Simon, who learned through River's mind-reading that Jayne sold them out to the Alliance two episodes before, on the planet Ariel. Simon proceeds to give Jayne a speech on how he (Simon) will never harm him as long as he's a patient, then leaves. River lingers a moment, then utters her line in a way that approaches cute...if the threat weren't pretty damn real and mildly terrifying. Especially after what we saw her do in "War Stories" with one pistol and her eyes closed...
4. "If you take sexual advantage of her..." (Firefly, 1x06 "Our Mrs Reynolds")
Partly, it's the speech Shepherd Book gives Mal, but mostly it's what's in the picture. That lingering moment with Book poking out of the passageway, giving Mal one final reminder of "the Special Hell", before promptly disappearing again. It makes me giggle no end. But we can't forget the speech that started it all, where Book warns him of the special level of Hell he will be going to if he sleeps with his "wife", Saffron. One of Shepherd Book's finest moments.
3. "What was that?" (Serenity - Big Damn Movie)
The movie has drawn to a close. A patched up Serenity flies off through storm clouds and into space amidst wonderfully uplifting music. It hurtles off into the Black to continue its adventures with a new lease of life, a fresh lick of paint, all fixed and ready to...oh wait, something falls off! It flies towards the screen, we fade to black and Mal's voice asks "What was that?" A perfect echo of his first line of the movie (where, again, something flies unceremoniously off the ship) and...just the best end to the movie. Pure Joss Whedon brilliance. One of the reasons I loved this movie so much - this final moment, for me, seems to epitomise everything about Firefly: no matter what, there's always a catch, something's always falling apart, but Serenity never stops flying.
2. "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!" (Firefly, 1x01 "Serenity")
It may cause some controversy that this moment isn't number one, but...well, I'll explain later. But nonetheless, it was a close race as Wash's introductory scene is pure genius. Nothing sums up Hoban Washburne better than this scene. I want to make a descent paragraph out of this but...well, it speaks for itself. Pure, solid gold genius.
1. The First Rule of Flying (Serenity - Big Damn Movie)
I'm a hopelessly sappy, sentimental romantic. I hold my hand up and admit this proudly. For this reason, my favourite ever Firefly/Serenity moment is Mal's final speech, delivered to River Tam. And I hold to the belief that Mal has it right. "Love. You can learn all the math in the 'Verse, you take a boat in the air you don't love she'll shake you off just as sure as the turn of the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurting before she keens. Makes her home." I can deliver this line with far, far too much heartfelt conviction. And soon, I shall have an awesome print with that quotation on it. Thank you, QMx!
So there you have it for my inaugural Shiny Day. I'm off to cook then watch Serenity. I aim to misbehave :)
Wednesday, 5 September 2012
I like the quiet
Today I'm using the wise words of Xander Harris, mostly in a sort of ironic context. I'm actually a little guilty that I've been so quiet. July was quite the prolific month for me, then August was somewhat swallowed up in an eerie silence. But there's context for that, which naturally I'm going to explain.
The Song of Ice and Fire.
It's hardly unknown that I've been powering through this brilliant series of books since July. Last week I finally came to the end...well, the end so far. Now that I've completed A Dance with Dragons: After the Feast, I have to wait for a while (a good long while, everyone theorises) for The Winds of Winter. But now that chapter that George R.R. Martin read out at the talk in April makes so much sense. So I get to sit here giddily, incurring the wrath of every Ice and Fire geek who wasn't there and is equally champing at the bit waiting for The Winds of Winter to be released. Let it be known, however, that I am just as every bit anxious.
Now the usual tradition after I've finished a book is the Sitting Under the Tree segment, but instead of summing up my feelings for A Feast for Crows or A Dance with Dragons, I'm going to do a huge blab about my feelings on the whole series.
It all started in January, really. For months before my housemate had been raving about the TV show Game of Thrones. I've gone over this story before, but I'm going to briefly recap. My friend Phoenix found out George R.R. Martin was coming to Bath, but found it coincided with Korn playing in Bristol. It turned out that Korn was the day before, but in January she didn't know and I offered to go in her place, get a book signed. At this point I had not read any of the books, I only knew about the TV show. I had, however, bought my housemate the paperback boxset of the first four volumes for her birthday. So in February, after having bought the tickets for the George R.R. Martin event, with my laptop dead, I borrowed A Game of Thrones and took it out in a week. One of my prevailing thoughts was "Frakking Lannisters!" and my overwhelming feeling was that there was only one forgivable Lannister. Tyrion.
Boy was I wrong.
Tyrion Lannister is still, undeniably, one of my favourite characters and quite possibly the best Lannister, but George R.R. Martin is deviously brilliant and managed to make me like Ser Jaime Lannister. He gave me a begrudging respect for Lord Tywin Lannister and made sure I still disliked Queen Cersei Lannister because she is a total nutjob. I love the Starks, especially Arya and her bastard half-brother, Jon Snow. I want Daenerys Targaryen to take the Iron Throne and...
Well, there's a lot of things I want to say, but no spoilers. None at all, no. So now I'm going to try and be vague and general about my feelings on the subject.
It may be surprising to know that the seven paperbacks/five volumes of Song of Ice and Fire are, aside from The Hobbit are the only straight up fantasy books in my book collection. I will (before I have threats hurled at me from various quarters) be rectifying this, but it's going to be slow-going, so be patient. But I've always enjoyed fantasy and Song of Ice and Fire...well, I was hooked from the first second. A Game of Thrones was brilliant, gripping. A Clash of Kings was equally brilliant (and it was the hardback book that I had signed) and A Storm of Swords completely blew my mind. A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons had a lot to live up to and did admirably, but I think A Storm of Swords is still the high point. I'm sure I mentioned it before, but I'll mention it once again. I wish that I had gotten that book signed. Next time. Definitely next time!
Overall though, I loved Song of Ice and Fire. It's brilliant and I can't wait for more. But Song of Ice and Fire hasn't been the only thing that's kept me busy. At the end of August, I was tied up for one brilliant evening watching Brave.
Yes, I have a soft spot for animated films. I have Kung Fu Panda and its sequel in my DVD collection. I intend to add The Incredibles and How to Train Your Dragon at the very least, more likely to follow. Including Brave. It was absolutely brilliant.
So the plot was a tiny bit on the predictable side, but that is a hazard of having watched a whole frak ton of movies and briefly studying film in my first year of university. And being a writer and usually thinking "well, this is what I would do..." resulting in often being right. It's very nice when I'm wrong. Sometimes I'm not, like with Brave, but it was so funny and enjoyable that I forgive it entirely. That and I had the great company of Thief and Oracle for the movie. It was an awesome evening.
Finally, backtracking slightly to Song of Ice and Fire, my fantasy nerve has been repeatedly jumped on. I want more. And not just books or movies. For some reason (mostly because people keep telling me it's amazing), Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is enticing me. That and watching the trailer for the Dawnguard add-on and my affinity for vampires (proper, blood-sucking, bursting-into-flames-in-sunlight vampires). Right now though, I'm going to bide my time, see if this is just a phase that passes or something more. We'll see. And I'll probably have a few people whispering "Get Skyrim" in my ear. That's going to be fun.
For now, this is me being not so quiet and hoping that I stay not being so quiet.
The Song of Ice and Fire.
It's hardly unknown that I've been powering through this brilliant series of books since July. Last week I finally came to the end...well, the end so far. Now that I've completed A Dance with Dragons: After the Feast, I have to wait for a while (a good long while, everyone theorises) for The Winds of Winter. But now that chapter that George R.R. Martin read out at the talk in April makes so much sense. So I get to sit here giddily, incurring the wrath of every Ice and Fire geek who wasn't there and is equally champing at the bit waiting for The Winds of Winter to be released. Let it be known, however, that I am just as every bit anxious.
Now the usual tradition after I've finished a book is the Sitting Under the Tree segment, but instead of summing up my feelings for A Feast for Crows or A Dance with Dragons, I'm going to do a huge blab about my feelings on the whole series.
It all started in January, really. For months before my housemate had been raving about the TV show Game of Thrones. I've gone over this story before, but I'm going to briefly recap. My friend Phoenix found out George R.R. Martin was coming to Bath, but found it coincided with Korn playing in Bristol. It turned out that Korn was the day before, but in January she didn't know and I offered to go in her place, get a book signed. At this point I had not read any of the books, I only knew about the TV show. I had, however, bought my housemate the paperback boxset of the first four volumes for her birthday. So in February, after having bought the tickets for the George R.R. Martin event, with my laptop dead, I borrowed A Game of Thrones and took it out in a week. One of my prevailing thoughts was "Frakking Lannisters!" and my overwhelming feeling was that there was only one forgivable Lannister. Tyrion.
Boy was I wrong.
Tyrion Lannister is still, undeniably, one of my favourite characters and quite possibly the best Lannister, but George R.R. Martin is deviously brilliant and managed to make me like Ser Jaime Lannister. He gave me a begrudging respect for Lord Tywin Lannister and made sure I still disliked Queen Cersei Lannister because she is a total nutjob. I love the Starks, especially Arya and her bastard half-brother, Jon Snow. I want Daenerys Targaryen to take the Iron Throne and...
Well, there's a lot of things I want to say, but no spoilers. None at all, no. So now I'm going to try and be vague and general about my feelings on the subject.
It may be surprising to know that the seven paperbacks/five volumes of Song of Ice and Fire are, aside from The Hobbit are the only straight up fantasy books in my book collection. I will (before I have threats hurled at me from various quarters) be rectifying this, but it's going to be slow-going, so be patient. But I've always enjoyed fantasy and Song of Ice and Fire...well, I was hooked from the first second. A Game of Thrones was brilliant, gripping. A Clash of Kings was equally brilliant (and it was the hardback book that I had signed) and A Storm of Swords completely blew my mind. A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons had a lot to live up to and did admirably, but I think A Storm of Swords is still the high point. I'm sure I mentioned it before, but I'll mention it once again. I wish that I had gotten that book signed. Next time. Definitely next time!
Overall though, I loved Song of Ice and Fire. It's brilliant and I can't wait for more. But Song of Ice and Fire hasn't been the only thing that's kept me busy. At the end of August, I was tied up for one brilliant evening watching Brave.
Yes, I have a soft spot for animated films. I have Kung Fu Panda and its sequel in my DVD collection. I intend to add The Incredibles and How to Train Your Dragon at the very least, more likely to follow. Including Brave. It was absolutely brilliant.
So the plot was a tiny bit on the predictable side, but that is a hazard of having watched a whole frak ton of movies and briefly studying film in my first year of university. And being a writer and usually thinking "well, this is what I would do..." resulting in often being right. It's very nice when I'm wrong. Sometimes I'm not, like with Brave, but it was so funny and enjoyable that I forgive it entirely. That and I had the great company of Thief and Oracle for the movie. It was an awesome evening.
Finally, backtracking slightly to Song of Ice and Fire, my fantasy nerve has been repeatedly jumped on. I want more. And not just books or movies. For some reason (mostly because people keep telling me it's amazing), Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is enticing me. That and watching the trailer for the Dawnguard add-on and my affinity for vampires (proper, blood-sucking, bursting-into-flames-in-sunlight vampires). Right now though, I'm going to bide my time, see if this is just a phase that passes or something more. We'll see. And I'll probably have a few people whispering "Get Skyrim" in my ear. That's going to be fun.
For now, this is me being not so quiet and hoping that I stay not being so quiet.
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