Found a couple more episodes of Prisoners of Gravity on Youtube...

The Jack Kirby Tribute episode
Part One: (Interviews with Jack Kirby on the importance of Alter Egos, storytelling. Interviews with Len Wein, Kevin Eastman on his influence)
Part Two: Interviews with Dave Gibbons about Jack, interview with Jack Kirby on Captain America, the Fantastic Four (and how the Thing is based on himself), Thor, other Gods/Godlike characters, interview with Will Eisner about Kirby facing down the Mafia (sort of), Walt Simonson on Kirby creating the visual language of superheroes)
Part Three: (Non-comics personalities Charles De Lint & Samuel R. Delany share thoughts on Kirby, Jack Kirby on what he thinks his greatest contribution to comics, advice to the young cartoonists, the influence of his family, Scott McCloud on Kirby's influence, Max Allan Collins on playing his song "King Jack" and others for Kirby himself)

And, though it's not as good, it still has some mild interest:
Adaptations:
Part One: Interviews with Bob Kane (on Batman, the TV show, and the 1988 movie and its sequel), Frank Miller (on The Dark Knight Returns), Kevin Eastman (on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and its adaptations), Max Allan Collins (on Dick Tracy and adaptation attempts)
Part Two: Interviews with Dave Stevens (The Rocketeer creator, on its adaptation), Commander Rick talks about SF stories adapted to film, Interview with Larry Niven (about the possibility of bringing Ringworld to film, or comicizing), George R.R. Martin on the Wild Cards novels (novel series adapted from a private roleplaying game and it getting adapted into comics and RPG form)
Part Three: Bill Sienkiewicz (on Classics Illustrated), Rick Geary (on what to cut out in comic adaptations), Mike Kaluta (on the comic adaptation of The Abyss), Harlan Ellison (on adaptations of his work)

Finished: A Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Thoughts on the debut of John Carter behind the cut. Not really spoilery. ( Read more... )
Started and finished: The Fifth Omni Book of Science Fiction (short stories)
Started: Camouflage, by Joe Haldeman

Thoughts on the Omni SF book behind the cut. Not really spoilery. ( Read more... )
Finished: Otherland: Vol 4: Sea of Silver Light, by Tad Williams
Started: Queen of Mazes, by Karl Schroeder

Thoughts about the whole of the Otherland series behind the cut. Some minor spoilers. Quick thought: liked it more than I thought I would. ( Read more... )

Other news! I have a new tasty sandwich treat. Mortadella and Caesar dressing. Now, one of my favorite sandwich discoveries of the last decade was Mortadella and Feta Cheese. Very nice, but there's one problem. I have to have Feta. And though I love feta cheese, I don't eat it enough to make it feasible to have it on hand at all times - it's too expensive in small batches and goes bad in large batches. So usually I only get it if my grandmother gives me some from her own batches (she uses it a lot), and so Mortadella and Feta is, although awesome, somewhat rare for me. However, Caeser dressing does a lot of the same good thing - gives it a nice tangy, salty kick, and I can have Caesar dressing all the time. So it is now superior on my list of favorite sandwiches.
(By favorite sandwich discoveries I mean things that I can make easily and for relatively cheaply, not fancy frou frou sandwiches or ones that require 50 steps, no matter how awesome they might be).

In other food news tried a microwave (PC) 'lamb rogon josh' dish today, which was quite nice for a microwave meal. Never had rogon josh before, but it might be worth trying sometime if I get the chance at a real place.

And, haven't mentioned dreams in a while, but there were a couple in the last few days I wanted to get down. One involving something very disturbing from Doctor Who, and another just SF goodness. ( Read more... )

Oh, and damn you Marvel. You finally decide to do a Runaways What If (What If... The Runaways became the Young Avengers)... and not only do you have to give it to CB Cebulski to write (a guy who seems very nice and apparently likes all my favorite characters, but to whom I've never particularly enjoyed any of his writing), but you make it a BACK-UP story to five other What Ifs I have no interest in. *shakes fist*. I think I'll have to resort to... let's call it magic, to get this story.

Finally, shouldn't there be _some_ standards and accountability with television commercials? I mean, specifically, that when a TV channel advertises something as an "all new episode", should it not _be_ an all-new episode, and if it is not, that commercial pulled and replaced with one that does not use that phrase (or, in the absence of that, some kind of punishment)? I'm speaking specifically of the Comedy Network, which I watch a fair bit, and I constantly see commercials for Corner Gas that start with "ON AN ALL NEW CORNER GAS"... except they're reruns. This year's reruns, sure, but reruns all the same. NOT ALL NEW. YOU DIE NOW. It's not like I'm looking forward to new eps or anything, it's the principle of the thing - if you advertise All New, it had damn well better be all new. It's bad enough when US channels used to advertise something as the "World television premiere" of something that already aired in Canada, but this is another level entirely. I don't actually think they're being deceptive in this case, just lazy (too lazy to redo the commercials from when it was new), but laziness is not an excuse - you're a network, you've got millions of dollars - fix it. *shakes fist*.

This week I got three books:

New Warriors #13 (meh, okay)
Runaways #30 (My pick of the week, some interesting tweaks to the status quo)
Secret Invasion Runaways/Young Avengers #1 (reasonably fun)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

I also noticed the bookstore I got my giftcards at for my birthday/xmas was having a 'buy 3 books, get the 4th free'... not _that_ great a deal, but still, better than nothing. So I used up one of them and got:
Queen of Mazes, by Karl Schroeder
A Meeting at Corvallis by S.M. Stirling
Iron Sunrise, by Charles Stross
and
Camouflage, by Joe Haldeman (Nebula Award Winner).

Work was okay, but a bit later than usual and so got home later than I'd like, both hot, tired (from the long walk), and hungry (I wanted to stop at a Taco Bell and see if I could take advantage of Phillip Ontakos, but alas, none is ever in my path when I need one. :P). However, on the way home I did pass a strip club with "Hulk was filmed here" on the marquee (outside). You can see the one in the trailer, when the two monsters are rushing each other in the streets and you see a big Zanzibar sign in the background. I just found it was amusing that they were advertising that.

In other news, I'm reasonably pleased with myself writing wise this month. Not only have I met my writing quotas for on-weeks, but I've also _edited_ a significant amount on my off-weeks. Pretty much every day this month that would have been a writing day on an on-week has become an editing day on an off-week. Okay, sure, I may not have done as much as I would have liked on each day, but I've done a chunk that I can at least be mildly pleased with. So yay me. I think I'm also getting a little better at identifying exactly what about particular passages that doesn't sound right - before it was usually sort of a vague unease, that the words didn't flow as I wanted them to, but wasn't sure exactly what to fix. So I think I'm getting a little better at it. Yay me x2.

In TV news, well, there's Doctor Who, and... well, unlike a lot of people on my flist, I didn't much care for the latest episode. Like a lot of RTD's work, it was only okay. Well-acted, certainly. A few good moments, undoubtably. But on the whole it didn't do much for me - the basic plot has been used many times in SF (and even non SF) and, really, not done terribly innovatively here. The reason why it happened (both the sci-fi reason and the more human reason behind the title) didn't reall work well for me, nor did I see why certain elements of the resolution should work (which seemed to boil down to 'just because we need that'). There's also a lot in the episode that, because it's a tease for big events that the finale will handle, I have to hold in abeyance before I decide whether they were handled well or terribly in this episode. Midnight was much better.

Also watched the S5 premiere of Stargate Atlantis, which I watched early by... let's say 'magic'. It was also okay, but a little more on the enjoyable side. Kind of a lot there that I expected to happen, but Stargate's the kind of show that it's fun to follow along even with that. Still, one thing really bugged me (fairly minor spoiler, but cut anyway) ( Read more... )

Oh, and a teaser from Doctor Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog (the Joss Whedon mini-musical with Nathan Fillion and Neil Patrick Harris), if you haven't seen it yet.

This week I got one book:

X-Factor #32 (enjoyable, interesting new status quo setup, but its my last issue for a while)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

I also picked up at the used bookstore (50 cents each, woo!):
Brain Rose, by Nancy Kress
The Fifth Omni Book of Science Fiction (short story collection)

Work was okay, a bit later than usual, but, ah well. Got through it.

Oh, and a belated congratulations to George Takei for getting his marriage license with longtime partner Brad Altman. Sulu's not flying solo anymore! Or, well, he won't be in September when he actually marries, but I might not remember the line then so I'm using it now. (I'm sure I'm not the first to come up with it).

This week I got two books:

Captain Britain and MI13 #2 (a little too fast paced for me, but enjoyable and my Pick of the Week)
newuniversal: shockfront #2 (conversely, a little too slow, but enjoyable)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

At the comic store I saw the Heroes action figures, which apparently came out... was tempted to get either Hiro (with sword and super-hero messenger bag!) or Claire (with replacable wounded head and arm), but they were almost $20 each, and, well, on a budget. Maybe if they ever get cheaper. They also had Sylar and Mohinder, and maybe there were others behind those but I didn't see them.

Work was okay, and of course I did the long walk both to the comic store and home. Except, there was a little problem. On the way, I started to feel a little gassy, which, well, happens from time to time and is only a mild concern. Then, later, added to that, I began to feel a strong sense of... let's call it intenstinal urgency. This was not a good feeling, particularly when you're a) about 45 minutes walk from home, and b) in an area without anywhere convenient to duck into for a washroom (an area with homes, apartments, and long stretches of bridges). I managed to hold out across the bridges to get into a McDonalds. After I was done, I bought a double cheeseburger, of course, because, well, they really helped me out and when I use else someone's bathroom I feel guilty for some reason. Now, you might rightly think, "hey... given what sent you in there, perhaps eating McDonald's food was not the best idea there", but I think I know what happened. There was no logical reason for me to have those troubles that day, as I'd barely eaten anything. So, I think I scarfed down that double cheeseburger so fast it broke the speed of light on its way to my stomach, and thus travelled back in time, and caused a predestination paradox.

Edit: Oh, and I think I got a touch of sunburn on my shoulders/neck.

This week I got one book:

Young X-Men #3 (Meh, wishing it would get to the point)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

I also picked up at the used bookstore:
Probability Moon, by Nancy Kress

Work wasn't bad. Showed up early and not too heavy. Also, it helped me prove Heinlein wrong today! That is, in the specific case. There WAS such a thing as a free lunch, and I had it. They had a deal with the Wendy's next to us that employees got a free meal. So I had their 'Spicy' chicken breast sandwich combo. I say 'spicy' because, well, what the media considers "Spicy", I almost always consider merely "flavoured". Don't get me wrong, it's usually a pleasant flavour, but I need more of a kick to count it as spicy and am constantly disappointed when something advertised as spicy isn't. And I'm not even one of those crazy major league chili-heads. Still, yay for free food, even if I probably should have gone for the Baconator.

Random other thoughts:
Things I saw on the way home today: A guy fall off his bike in the middle of a street (luckily there were no cars around that the time). A fistfight break out between two people (looking around high school age, and near a school). Rosey O'Donnell at the Bookstore. Well, technically I don't know if I saw her. I saw the crowd around her, and it's possible my eyes crossed over her at some point, but I could not confirm.

At the bookstore I also happened to see "Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone", which makes me wonder.. surely somebody out there's written a crackfic where Indiana Jones stumbles upon rumors of a parallel society running off of magic, in England, and so investigates Hogwarts? I mean, come on, Internet. I'd be disappointed if someone hasn't.

Pet peeve: I hate all the headlines saying 'Obama makes history'... not because I don't support Obama or don't think it's great he passed this particular milestone, but because "makes history" is a meaningless phrase - if he lost, it would make history. If he choked on a celery stick and had to be rushed to the hospital it would make history. Whether he won quick, won after a long fight, lost quick, lost after a long fight, he made history. If he quit right now to become a hermit in the woods where he carves make a congress out of wood to agree with him, he makes history. History dutifully records what happens even if it's not a huge milestone that's never happened before. In my glorious new regime (which would, btw, make history), the phrase "makes history" would be banned from newscasts.

Also, is it wrong I'm much less bothered by the fact that the people on the colon check commercial are transparent and have visible internal organs, than I am about the fact that they're apparently going to the movies nude?

Finally, it's come to that time. I must say goodbye to Newsarama. That is, I must say goodbye to the forums. I'll still read it for news, I suppose, although by the looks of the front page it'll probably stop being my primary source. But I'm leaving behind the forums, which have changed formats. Why?

Because you need javascript to access it. To access forums. And that's abominable. I'm sorry, called me old-fashioned, but I like to surf with javascript off, 90% of the time, and it manages to cut out 90% of the crap (viruses, popups, etc). Having a site that _requires_ javascript On almost guarantees I will rarely use it. (Although often, if there's a site that I like that doesn't require it, I'll add it to my 'allow javascript on these sites' list, because it provides _easier_ use. But if it requires it, usually gets a 'screw you' response). IMHO, it's extremely poor web design. In my glorious new regime it would be disallowed for forums. So, I'm out one more forum.

This week I got three books:

Ultimate X-Men #94 (a bit of a continuity mess, and it's my last issue of the book)
X-Factor #31 (solid for what it is, my Pick of the Week)
X-Men: Divided We Stand #2 (not even as good as the first one, one decent story in it)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

I also picked up at the used bookstore:
The Sky People, by S.M. Stirling,
and
A Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs (figured it was about time I read the Mars books)

Work was okay, happened to get there really early and so all was done pretty quickly.

I have temporarily completed one of my life goals, but more details on that will wait for my next edition of Book Foo, which will not be right now.

This week I got three books:

Captain Britain and MI13 #1 (my Pick of the Week, pretty fun)
newuniversal: shockfront #1 (nice to see the series back again)
Serenity: Better Days #3 (disappointing)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

Work was okay.

Astonishing X-Men #1 ... Animated!

Edit: Oh, and speaking of animated, and X-Men, new 4-minute trailer to Wolverine and the X-Men the new X-Men cartoon series. Looks pretty sweet to me, nice mix of old and new stuff.

This week I got one book:

Young X-Men #2 (okay, but still not sure if I'll stick with it)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

I also picked up at the used bookstore:
Otherland Vol 4: Sea of Silver Light by Tad Williams
and
Paladin of Souls, by Lois McMaster Bujold

PoS is a Nebula-award winner and a Hugo-award winner, and most importantly, it is the last Hugo-award winning novel I have to read before I've read them all (until Labour Day at least, when they select the next winner).

Work was okay, earlier than usual and not so bad. Rained a bit on the long walk, but I could still read through some of it. Course, my net conking out shortly after I got home wasn't very fun, but oh well.

(Last thing under a WIDW tag was a Doctor Who one that I never officially counted even if it sort of applies, so I'll call this #16)

Time for another edition of What I'd Do With... Yes, it's been quite a while since I've done one of these, mostly because I've been doing much more actual writing in the last year or so. But I still get WIDW type urges, and this time I thought I'd try something different, and to make up for the long absence, something a little more intensive than I usually do.

WIDW a movie about Marvel Comics Thor (actually, sort of WIDW a movie and its sequel)...
The why: ( Read more... )

The what: An actual script for my proposed Thor movie (albeit still in something of a rough form, I got to a point where I just wanted to get it done and didn't throw in my best work).

If that's too long for you, here's the summary-in-words:
( Read more... )

Rough thoughts about a sequel, in which I decided to include a character normally known to be in the X-Universe, and a classic Thor moment, and even a tiny bit of thoughts on the third movie: ( Read more... )

So, that's it. Comments welcome.

You can get to all my WIDWs here.

Kind of a dull one. This week I got four books:

Avengers: The Initiative #12 (Dropping the book with this issue)
DC Universe Zero (does nothing to make me interested in DC again, feels like a 50c ad)
New Warriors #11 (my reluctant Pick of the Week, but only okay)
Ultimate X-Men #93 (a waste that at least thankfully ends Kirkman's run)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

So I'll talk about TV instead, in quick bites.
Doctor Who was pretty good, but (spoilers for newest UK episode) ( Read more... )
Battlestar Galactica was meh (not really spoilers) ( Read more... )
The real surprise of the last week or so was LOST, though, which was awesome this week (minor spoilers) ( Read more... ).

This week I got three books:

Avengers: The Initiative #11 (disappointing ending to the arc)
X-Factor #30 (Didn't really feel like an Arcade story)
X-Men Divided We Stand #1 (Okay, a little repetitive and I'm not fond of some of the developments, but some solid work)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

Work was okay, came early and was done quick. Walk was a bit tiring... it was my first big walk with my new shoes, so I had to use slightly different muscles - my old shoes had the heel worn down really really really really really really really really badly, so with the new ones it felt almost like I had suddenly started wearing high heels (or, y'know, what I'd imagine that would be like). And what with it being a warm sunny day the energy of walking didn't serve to warm me up against the cold, just made me more tired.

I was going to write about some book foo and some recent TV stuff, but I'm tired, so screw it, I'll do that tomorrow, and today I'll leave you with one last note:

When I woke up this morning, for the first time ever in my memory, one single eyebrow hair was spectacularly out of place. I mean spectacularly. It was as though it was attempting to flee it's small island nation where it is oppressed, cross the dehairitarized zone, and join the land of the free and wild in north Ahairica. I couldn't put it in place so I had to cut it. Now, you might think that cruel, that it was only striving for the freedom all hair aspires to, to grow long... however, the truth is, even if the hair had made its goal, it would not have fared any better, for a hairocaust was coming.

Today was haircut day. My yearly one. I like it long in the winter for extra warming, short and cool in the summer.

This week I got one book:

Serenity: Better Days #2 (okay, some nice moments, although a few problems)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

Work was okay, ran a bit late though, and weather sucked on the way there (but got nicer afterwords). Walk was a bit of a pain, but what else is new?

Nothing dramatic elsewise to report.

This week I got one book:

Young X-Men #1 (Pretty predictable all in all)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

Work was okay, but I'm a little wiped from the comic walk.

Random short news bites of recent interest to me: Anthony Stewart Head's apparently going to be in a new Merlin series on NBC next year (he's not playing Merlin). There's talk of a Firefly DVD set rerelease with more commentaries. Kristin Bell and Rob Thomas are re-teaming up apparently for the pilot of a new show called Outrageous Fortune. There'll be an Office 'spinoff' next year. Steampunk movie? The director of Victoria: The Golden Age's next project is an adaptation of a novel described as 'set in a Victorian-era alternate universe in which mankind has been exploring the solar system since the time of Isaac Newton, revolves around a brother and sister who team with a band of renegade space pirates to save the world from destruction at the hands of a madman.'

This week I got three books:

Avengers: The Initiative #10 (Plot feels a bit hollow, but had one of the best moments of the week)
Serenity: Better Days #1 (Feels a little better than the first mini)
X-Factor #29 (My Pick of the Week, barely, generally good as always)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

At the used bookstore I picked up: Singularity Sky, by Charles Stross, and Use of Weapons, by Iain M. Banks

Work wasn't too bad, a bit more than usual but came early, so it balanced out. Since I went to get comics, did the long walk. On my way into the Eaton Centre, there was a group of people offering Free Hugs. I didn't take them up on it, of course. You get what you pay for... the hugs were probably cheaply made with child labour, and are full of lead. Nosiree, don't want to risk that.

I had no such compunctions about accepting the free samples of soup on the other side of Eaton Centre. "Butternut Squash and Coconut Curry". Sounds... interesting. But hey, it was free.

Oh, and this meme has been going around, so I'll do it too I guess:
Everyone has things they blog about. Everyone has things they don't blog about. Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don't blog about, but you'd like to hear about, and I'll write a post or comment about it.
Ask for anything: latest movie watched, last book read, political leanings, thoughts on yaoi, favorite type of underwear, graphic techniques, etc. Repost in your own journal so that we can all learn more about each other.

Probably old hat since it's been boingboinged, but... Ever watch a zombie movie and wonder, "Hey, in the midst of this zombie apocalypse, I wonder how beloved magicians Penn and Teller are faring?"... Well, here's your answer.

In other news, feeling pretty low on motivation all around lately. I'd have hoped I'd pull out of my winter depression by now, but it's still going on. Anyway, despite that I've still managed to do some editing on writing. Also word comes that I may be able to get a free, secondhanded printer in the next little while, so that helps too, lets me expand my submission range.

Other computer's still running but I haven't tried to reboot and I occasionally hear odd sounds from the HD so I suspect it may only be a temporary reprieve from death, unfortunately.

Got a call today that the truck would be late tomorrow. Except the last 3 times I've gotten such a call for Monday it was followed up on the actual Monday with a call at the regular time saying it was there and where was I (combined with the driver having no idea about it even being thought to be late). So I'm not getting my hopes up to it.

In media... Atlantis finale was okay, but not as cool as I'd hoped. Still, only a couple months till the next ep, and pretty soon SG1 movie. Supernatural's renewed for another season, probably not a big surprise, but nice to hear. Still waiting on word on Terminator. Caught the new Spidey cartoon. Not bad, weird mix of Ultimate and regular continuity elements, a couple annoying voice actors, but worth a look. Wolverine and the X-Men's still a year away though, so it'll have to do me until then for comic cartoons. Comicbookresources has been doing a feature on the cast of Paul Cornell's Captain Britain and MI-13 comic series... unfortunately only Wisdom and John the Skrull really appeal to me, but we'll see, maybe I'll like the new char or some of the older ones I've not liked much before.

Ah well, enough for now.

This week I got one book:

New Warriors #9 (okay, but I think the cast is way too big)

Decided not to get Young Avengers Presents #2 after all.

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

Also at the used bookstore, picked up Otherland, Vol 3, by Tad Williams, and Excession, by Iain M. Banks.

Work wasn't bad, not too heavy and the guy came promptly. The long walk wasn't as bad as last week's.

Done another writing cycle, and a little early. It's a bit odd, because there were two things I complained about this week: 1) I didn't have any new ideas I was particularly interested in so I was probably going to have to force the writing on older stuff, and 2) Most of my writing tended to be a little longer in word count than most magazines are interested in. However, I not only worked completely on new stuff, I also finished a story in just a smidge over 3000 words. Yay me! (The other thing I worked on was a little forced-writing though).

It's a bit odd how the finishing one worked, too. Because of 1), while I was on the way to work one day, I said to myself, "Self, you need a new idea to write. Expand your horizons." Okay, I didn't actually say it in those words, but that was the gist of the thought. So I decided I'd experiment. I'd try to come up with the silliest idea I could think of in the next few seconds, and see if I could build a story about it. And I thought of a silly idea very quickly, and thought about it, and thought of a way it might not be totally silly after all. Now, of course, that was just the 'science fictional' germ of an idea. I didn't have anything else, nor know exactly what to build a story around. So when it came time to write, I basically just started with two simple character ideas and no idea where I was going. That's usually not a recipe for great writing for me, but in this case, it worked spectacularly. It was one of those beautiful writerly moments where the story revealed itself to me more or less naturally as I was writing it, to the point where I actually had a point where I essentially went, "Holy crap, (so and so is happening behind the scenes) and this is the story of how the narrator (first person) learns about it." So I was able to finish it up pretty easily. It wasn't a complex story, maybe a little obvious, but I'm rather pleased with it all the same. Oh, it still sucks and needs a great deal of revision, but it sucks less than much of my other work and I may try to polish it up and send it off next when my other story gets rejected.

I've mentioned many times my nostalgic love of the old Canadian TVO program "Prisoners of Gravity". It was a show where the host would interview various creators of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Comics. It's a bit kitschy (see the opening cartoon) but holds a dear place in my thought and have always thought more people should know about it. Well, I happened to do a search again and to my surprise, at least a few episodes now appear to be up on Youtube. Only 4 so far, alas. But, I've been watching them this afternoon, and I share! If you're a fan of written SF in particular, watch (each link's about 10 minutes in length)!

Amnesia/Total Recall: An episode devoted to how the loss of memory or perfect memory is dealt with in various spec-fic.

Part 1: David Cronenburg talks about his attempt to write the adaptation of We Can Remember It For You Wholesale (what eventually became Total Recall), Walter John Williams talks about Voice of the Whirlwind, C.J. Cherryh about memory, particularly in Heavy Time, Harry Harrison on The Turing Option.
Part 2: Pat Cadigan on Fools, and Korsikov's Syndrome. Nancy Kress on Brain Rose, Kim Antieau on "Another Country", Samuel R. Delany on Dhalgren
Part 3 (the eidetic memory part): Ray Bradbury on his own claimed eidetic memory, Megan Lindholm on Alien Earth,
Terry Pratchett on Small Gods

(other links/summaries will be behind the cut to save flists)
The Tolkien episode: Different fantasy authors/comics creators/artists talk about Tolkien's influence on them and the field in general. ( Read more... ), Science and Technology, pros, cons, definitions of SF and fantasy, science vs magic, other views, etc: ( Read more... ), Writers talk about Fans and Fandom: ( Read more... )
And it's not a whole ep, just to complete the youtube collection, here's a clip from PoG of Alan Moore and Steve Bissett talking about Swamp Thing and Metamorphosis in comics in general
Not my favorite of the episodes (though the Amnesia one I quite liked, and the second part of the fans one with Ellison and Gaiman was pretty cool), but still a blast from the past. I've said it before, and I'll say it again... I really wish there was a show like this now.

This week I got three books:

Runaways #29 (okay, but the delays really kill the book and I'm disappointed on something missing)
Ultimate X-Men #91 (interesting, Kirkman manages to make Apocalypse more threatening than the 616 version)

and from last week,
X-Factor #28 (good, David's almost good enough to make me not care about how much I dislike the X-books now)

Full review as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

WOrk wasn't bad. The walk to the comic store however, was a bit painful. My shoes need replacing and walking in them right now's a bit uncomfortable. By the end of the 2.5 hour walk my left foot was sore as hell, and I was limping through most of it. Ah well.

Writing cycle starts again tomorrow, and I'm a bit dismayed that I'm not really excited about any ideas to be working on. I was thinking of trying to go out of my comfort zone and try to write something actiony or maybe horror, but no ideas really presented themselves. I suspect it's part of the whole winter depression things. Ideas don't come as easy. So it looks like it'll be another cycle of forcing things.

In non-cycle related news, I've recently become interested in an old project of mine, a comic idea I wrote the first 5 pages of for a Writer's Workshop Segment. I kinda had the idea of expanding it into a full comic script, and am sort of working on ideas to make it happen. But because such things don't really have a word count I have to work on it in my free time and not part of a cycle.

So, Paul Cornell's new Marvel book is finally announced. No, it's not Excalibur, it's "Captain Britain and MI-13". Which seems a bit unweildy for a title, but I'll probably pick it up.

newuniversal gets its second story arc started. Claremont's long-delayed "Genext" project (an out of continuity exploring 'what if the X-Men had aged in real time and the real next generation of mutants was active now'), though I might skip that.

And I guess I'll have to pick up Young X-Men after all, what with putting two of the classic NuMus on the cover of issue #2.

So, I'm a fan of ImprovEverywhere, but I usually only go to their site when I'm alerted to their shenanigans from some other site like . So today I saw their prank where 200 people froze in place in Grand Central Station for five minutes, and as is my nature, I went back to see if I missed anything else. Well, I did. They had their annual No Pants Subway Ride day... and this time, in addition to the New York one, they had it in Toronto as well, along with something like 8 other cities. How did I not hear about this? Probably because I don't read the papers, since it supposedly made both of our big ones. But yay for Toronto.

I personally never could have gone on No Pants Day due to extreme shyness (I don't even wear shorts in summer), but, still cool. The other new development I missed was that they've set up an Improv Everywhere Global where spinoff groups are sprouting up in other cities. Maybe one day I'll actually get to see an op in progress, or if I ever get some nerve, participate.

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The latest selection from Harper Collins Canada's First Look program (where they are willing to send me free advanced review copies of books in exchange for writing up my opinion of them) for this month actually had a book I was interested in. It's a YA book called "Gone", in which everybody over 14 suddenly disappears from the world. I've toyed with similar concepts in my own head and have enjoyed seeing other variations of it (the plague that kills adults, like was done in Jeremiah). So I put in a request for that one. Hopefully I'll get it, and it'll be my second book.

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Judging by the commercials, people who like Malteasers are easily amused.

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Why Canadian Teachers should be carefully monitored

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Crazy snowblowing today.

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Lost was last night. Decent episode, although I still haven't had a chance to really 'get into' it again. Hopefully the next few eps will help with that.

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I got a "Wow, good for you" from a stranger today. I was at the grocery store after work, and the cashier asked me for my postal code, and if I walked there. Now, either she's stalking me and is now on to getting rather obscure information to make her fantasies extra complete, or it's some kind of market research thing. In any event, she just noted it down, but I guess the woman in front of me in line must have had some idea that my postal code was rather distant from the store, because she said, "Wow, good for you" when she heard I walked. (It's about a 45 minute walk, maybe an hour when the snowfall's heavy and unplowed as it is was then).

This week I got two books:

Avengers: The Initiative #9 (okay but felt a bit pointless at times)
Ultimate X-Men #90 (my Pick of the Week, the major developments here at least felt like they had something of a point)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

I also picked up, at the used bookstore, Woken Furies, by Richard Morgan (last book of the Kovacs series), and Otherland, Volume 2: River of Blue Fire by Tad Williams.

Work was okay, came fairly early actually and wasn't too heavy, although the usual annoyances due to the renovations.

Since I had comics I did the full walk around, which was even more painful this time around because of the horrid windchill. Now, granted, it wasn't as bad as it's been in some parts of the country (-50, man), but it was pretty annoying for a 2 hour walk,
and particularly since it seemed to follow me around and blow in my face no matter which way I was walking. For a good portion of it I had to don my vigilante identity, the Red Toque again, pull it down entirely over my face, hook it under my chin, and walk around like that. If my book was smaller I would have tried to read while walking while having a toque over my eyes, just to freak people out.

Also on the walk, I did have an interesting idea I'm going to have to play with somehow. Sort of a superhero/team concept, inspired a tiny bit by a novel I read as a young kid and now can't remember anything but the base premise of it. Unfortunately if I mention the premise I'll possibly have given away the idea, so I'm going to keep it to myself a bit until I decide what to do with it.

Things I saw on the walk home: A poster of an Ood, from Doctor Who, just lying there on the ground. I almost picked it up, but it was really frayed around the edges.

And, posted just for the sheer wtfishness of it, some Dream Foo! ( Read more... )

And now, delicious cake.

For those on my flist who aren't comic geeks, Marvel Zombies was a sort of joke concept started in the Ultimate Universe in which the heroes of the Marvel Universe (or rather an Alternate one) got infected by a zombie plague and started eating everyone else and turning some (unlike most traditional zombie stories, the zombies had their own intelligence and personality mostly, but they were driven by an unholy hunger and so couldn't stop from feeding, even on their friends or family except perhaps for a few minutes immediately after a feeding). It eventually spawned its own miniseries, spinoffs, statues, and is generally agreed to have been beaten into the ground by this point. It was very dark and occasionally gory but in some ways blackly funny.

But zombies aren't known for staying in the ground...

Somebody created a Marvel Zombies fanfilm.

It's very short, really more a teaser to an imaginary longer fanfilm (and technically speaking doesn't follow MZ canon), and extremely NSFW due to gore, and not all that funny really, but may have a certain amusement factor to Marvel fans or zombie fans just for the mere fact that it exists.

Here's a link to the fanfilm. (Watch past the credits).

This week I got one book:

Astonishing X-Men #24 (okay but this last arc's not worth the waiting)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

Work was a pain. Late, and due to renovations it's a more annoying job even though the load's lighter.

Almost took the subway home (from the comic shop, anyway), due more to lateness than any tiredness, but I decided to press on. I'll need the fitness if I ever go on the long walk. Speaking of walking, did help me develop some ideas... unfortunately, they're mostly ideas for the story I'm editing now. Which is good in one level, since the story involves rapid technological progress and I was needing to add more tech stuff to the background, but I worry the story might already be getting too bloated as it is. Maybe the story's beyond my capabilities to tell well at this point, but oh well. And of course, it's a problem because that story's in the editing stage, and since tomorrow is the start of another writing cycle I need either completely new stuff to work on, or new ideas for older stuff, and I didn't get much of those. Ah well.

Also on the walk home, I wanted to check the time, and I saw a phone booth, which usually displays it. Except when I got there, it said, "Please hang up receiver". So I did. And then it immediately changed to "Please pick up receiver." No. Just because I do you a favour, doesn't mean I'm your little puppetmonkey. Make up your mind. Anyway, then it put the time up.

On other fronts, I'm still enjoying the Sarah Connor Chronicles quite a bit. It's going in directions I don't expect, which is often a good thing (though I still hope it goes in a couple directions I expect). And bonus points for a mention of the Singularity.

And, I suppose I should mention something about Heath Ledger. I'm not a particular fan of his -- by which I don't mean that I had any dislike for him whatsoever, just that I haven't _seen_ a whole lot he's been in. The only real connection I had to him, aside from looking forward to his role as the Joker, was that I used him as the character model/actor for Scuzz on XET. So it does hit me a _little_ more than any other actor that I don't have a particular connection to, so it was something of a shock. I think I actually said "Holy crap" when I heard it on the news. And of course, mostly, it's a tragedy for his family. Must be hard for them, especially with him being fairly young (he's actually younger than me, though I wouldn't have guessed), and him having a young daughter. I wish the best for them in the times ahead.

First new comic day in a couple weeks. This week I got one book:

New Warriors #8 (okay, still annoyed at too many characters looking alike)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

Work was okay, but new drivers and so they arrived a bit later than usual and the load was heavier. Ah well.

The long walk wasn't bad, though. I just came off a writing cycle. Met my full quota, but I think I'm going to have to throw out about half of it. I worked on 3 stories. One, the one I wrote the most on, is more or less okay, but I still have to decide where I'm going with it and how to finish it. One of the others I need to revise drastically as I finally decided who the viewpoint character needed to be - I sort of wrote it with some kind of vague guy in mind as is, and it won't work. The third, well, there was something that wasn't clicking with it, and on the walk today I figured out what it is. ( Read more... )

So, Sarah Connor Chronicles. Episode One was similar to the pilot I saw, luckily. They changed a bit but not what I feared they'd change. The only big disappointment was the recasting of one of the characters - I liked the old actor much better. Second ep kept up the plot very well. I'm enjoying the show and glad it's done decently in the ratings. It's not perfect - there are a few potentially big glitches in the concept and the couple eps we saw, not to mention that you have to shut your brain off anytime they mention a timeline that's in any way supposed to match with the movies because it just doesn't no matter how much you try. Treat it as an alternate universe or rebooting where that much makes sense. But it's enjoyable, and love seeing Summer Glau active again.

This week I got two books:

Avengers: The Initiative #8 (my Pick of the Week)
New Warriors #7 (a bit slow and sometimes hard to tell the cast apart)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

Went 'Boxing Week' shopping, but I didn't actually buy anything at anywhere that had a particular sale. Well, a bookstore, but what I bought was in their 'books we're trying to get rid of really cheap' bin and didn't really count as a sale. Bookstore's boxing day sales kinda suck, I don't much care for "30% off Hardcovers OMG!" (especially given the strength of the Canadian dollar, much of that we shouldn't have been paying anymore). I'll wait for later in the year till they have their "buy 3 paperbacks get one free" with my gift card.

I was tempted at the Music/DVD shop at some season boxed sets... they had Stargate seasons and Buffy full seasons at 2/$30 and some cheap individual movies (but none I craved owning), but I didn't.

But I did come home with a lot of stuff. I got the following books:
Year Zero, by Brian Stableford ($2 remainder bin book)
The Depths of Time, by Robert MacBride Allen (50c)
Superluminal by Vonda McIntyre (50c)
The Best of Interzone (short story collection) (50c)
The Modular Man, by Robert MacBride Allen (50c)

but my greatest achievement, I _finally_ found "Balance of Power" by Brian Stableford, for $2. I've been looking for this one for a while even though none on my flist have ever heard of it probably - it's part 5 of 6 of a short novel series (the Deadalus Landings) involving a team sent to colony planets to check up on them, find out if they've had any unexpected problems integrating with the ecology, and correct them. They're not quite as good as the Star Pilot Grainger series, but they have some of the same type of things I liked in them, and I've read the first four, and have the 6th. I could never find 5. Of course it's been so long I might have to reread them, and that'll mean rebuying some of the first 4 (got lost when loaned out), but those other 4 are relatively easy to find, I see them popping up from time to time. Just have to figure out exactly which of them I have and don't have.

Work wasn't bad today, showed up on time and was pretty light again. The long walk was a bit rough though, my foot still hurts.

Oh, and I finally had occasion to try out my new fushion powered shaving. You know, I was skeptical of the safety of rapidly vibrating five razor blades while they're in contact with your skin, but damn, that was one smooth shave.

This week I just got one book:

Ultimate X-Men #89 (disappointing conclusion to a long running subplot)

I was considering getting Marvel Holiday Special 2007, but they didn't seem to have any
at my store, so oh well.

Full reviews up as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

Work was okay, relatively early and a little lighter than usual. The walk to the comic store/bookstores and home again was hell though, because of slush. Looked for Xmas gifts, but only bought a couple. Had a few more ideas but need some doing and consultation to make them work.

On the way home, I saw (again), a creepy half-life-size robotic santa singing Christmas carols and dancing robotically. Now, I'm more gung ho about robot and AI rights than anybody, but that thing must be destroyed, because given the chance, it will attempt to kill all of humanity. Mark my words. MARK MY WORDS.

In other news, yesterday I attempted to make Sponge Toffee. By the use of the word 'attempted' you might have some idea of how it turned out. And it wasn't 100% following the recipe either, since I didn't have all of the (admittedly very few) ingredients, so I improvised a bit. Now you might think, 'hey, improvising on your very first try cooking a dish you've only read how to do on the internet, when you have virtually no cooking skills whatsoever, probably isn't the brightest idea in the world.'. And you'd be right. But what you're ignoring is that I am not the brightest guy in the world, and fortune favours the bold, which is my motto despite the fact that I've never been able to apply it to any aspect of my life other than attempted cookery. Actually, the problem (as far as I could see) wasn't anything to do with the improvised ingredient substitutions, which might have affected the flavour but not 'ruined it', the problem was simply that I let it cook a little too long. I suspect I needed to take it off the stove sometime _before_ the smell of burning stuff started (in fairness to me, I was just getting ready to take it off the stove when the burning smell started). So although toffee formed, a burnt flavour permeated it and rendered it ungood, but I think the underlying stuff was okay if you cut out the burned flavour. May have needed to fold in the baking soda a bit more so the spongeness was more even, too. My other motto is of course "if at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.", so I got rid of the sponge toffee and cleaned all my pots before anybody realized I'd cooked (well, okay, there was a bit of smell in the air). Anyway, I may try again with proper ingredients and slightly less cook time because sponge toffee is pretty good and according to the recipe super-easy to make.

Oh, and finally, Happy Eid to all of those on my flist that celebrate it.

This week I just got one book:

New Warriors #6 (entertaining, and nice to get some details on the cast)

Full reviews up as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

Work was annoying, a bit late and tiring. But I did see Sylar's identical (but shorter) twin on the way home. Well maybe not identical. But close.

Oh, and I think I got my first facebook spam today. Well, my first facebook spam that was not part of one of their idiotic "applications". Someone messaged me and said they were new to facebook and couldn't find a way to chat with me but i 'seemed cool' and then linked to the site they usually hang out, which is of course a dating site. Yeah, right. Like I've ever been approached out of the blue because I "seemed cool". Spam probability about 97.42%.

This week I just got one book:

Ultimate X-Men #88 (okay, but nothing special)

I considered, but in the end decided not to, get Avengers: The Initiative Annual #1. And of course I'm skipping Ultimates 3. Maybe I'll pick up the trade, but Loeb and Joe Mad isn't much of a draw to me, and if I wanted to see the Avengers including Wolverine and Spidey and fighting Symbiotes, well, I'd be reading New Avengers.

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

Alas, did not find $20 again today. Found a dime, but that really doesn't count. Also found a library card, and I suppose theoretically I could have used the card to take out more than $20 worth of books and never return them, but that would be wrong, so I didn't, so I left the card on the sidewalk figuring it was the person's best chance to find it.

It was a tiny bit cold today. Something like -17 with wind chill, so not too bad all in all, but with the 3 or so hours of walking I do on Wednesdays to swing by the comic/bookstores it kind of adds up. I think I might need to get new gloves though, mine have a few holes in it and after the first hour of walking I had to put my book away and walk the rest without reading because my hands were getting a bit too cold.

Now I must go eat, I have some leftover roast with greek potatoes and rice from when I visited my grandmother on Sunday, and my stomach is growling for it.