Geektress.comtag:www.geektress.com,2013://12013-01-01T17:35:34ZMovable Type 3.33The Snowmen, or How the Doctor Got His Groove Backtag:www.geektress.com,2013://1.7912013-01-01T17:30:41Z2013-01-01T17:35:34Z My son Hunter and I had been anticipating the Christmas special since Angels in Manhattan. He was very upset about the Ponds dying, inconsolable for days. (Spoilers if you have not seen the episode yet!)...Francenehttp://eibmoz.tumblr.com/
My son Hunter and I had been anticipating the Christmas special since Angels in Manhattan. He was very upset about the Ponds dying, inconsolable for days.
(Spoilers if you have not seen the episode yet!)]]>
Hunter: It was awesome! What I have to say is, it was epic and cool. The snowmen were creepy. Not sure if I like Clara/Oswin yet. I liked the new Tardis, there were two screens and it matched the Doctor's Scrooge-like personality in this episode. I am looking forward to the new cybermen update, and to see how the new companion does. The new opening was good, it included time travel and space travel. The old opening had too much time travel. The classic episodes had the Doctor's face, which was cool, and now we have the face again.]]>
Have (A Town Called) Mercy for (The Power of) Threetag:www.geektress.com,2012://1.7872012-09-29T16:44:03Z2013-01-01T17:35:22Z (art by Adam Koford for shirt.woot!) Here we are, finally back with a brief review of "A Town Called Mercy" and "The Power of Three." Frankly, we weren't all that enthused about either episode, so this is mostly just...Laurahttp://www.geektress.com/about.php#laura
Here we are, finally back with a brief review of "A Town Called Mercy" and "The Power of Three." Frankly, we weren't all that enthused about either episode, so this is mostly just about how time travel is confusing, brain hurty type stuff. We're pretty psyched for Saturday's fall finale, "Angels Take Manhattan," so we're saving our energy for that one. (I bet you didn't know it took a lot of energy to talk about Doctor Who. Well, it doesn't. We just don't have much to begin with.)
I would, however, like to add a personal note about "A Town Called Mercy": I am shocked by the lack of art in the fan community devoted to Susan.
Spoilers follow, so don't continue if you haven't seen the episode.]]>
Francene: I have to say, I think these last 2 episodes are just filler to get us to the Ponds' leaving story. I did not like "A Town Called Mercy."
Laura: I thought the A-plots of the episodes have been pretty weak, but there was enough good character stuff in both of them to keep me entertained. Plus, Ben Browder is still all sexy and wonderful, so I was happy enough to see him again.
Francene: Oh yeah, I like the character stuff, that has been solid. I like knowing how companions feel about their situation. It is great they aren't just killing people off for the sake of it. The Doctor is so lonely, I am feeling sad for him.
Laura: Me too. Do he and Amy have the most codependent Doctor/Companion relationship? I think they do. Right now I'm a bit more fixated on what's going on with the timeline though. People on the internet are saying that the episodes are happening in reverse order, but I don't think that explanation really works. THERE IS SOMETHING WONKY WITH TIME!
Francene: Yeah, in one of the episodes he said he was 1200 years old. What is going on? Is he going back in time to visit them, because something horrible has happened? I am afraid to know.
Laura: Isn't he 1200 years old is because he aged a whole bunch when all of time was happening at once right before he "died"? But there's other stuff too. He referenced Rory leaving his phone charger in Henry VIII's bedroom in "A Town Called Mercy," but it happened in "The Power of Three." He asked Amy about her job in "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship," but in "The Power of Three" he didn't even know Amy and Rory had jobs. He could be going in reverse order to visit them, because something terrible has happened, but if that were the case, shouldn't he have known Rory's dad in "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship"? It's all so confusing.
Francene: OK, I thought I was going crazy. I have to re-watch some stuff. Yeah, the job thing confused me, but as I am admittedly on pain killers, I thought it was just me. Other people see this too! Hurray!
Laura: Doctor Who: The Show You Might As Well Be Watching While Zonked Out On Pain Pills.
Francene: So true.
I have yet to decide if it would be better to re-watch everything before "Angels Take Manhattan," or if I should watch the new episode and then re-watch everything with all the available information. What do you think would be the best course of action?
Also, was this show as confusing when Davies was in charge? It didn't seem like it, but I didn't have to wait a whole week in between episodes when I watched his seasons.]]>
Walking with Dinosaurs (on a Spaceship)tag:www.geektress.com,2012://1.7862012-09-10T20:13:13Z2013-01-01T17:35:22Z (From Odd the Sun God's Tumblr) We're back with our second Doctor Who review of the much anticipated "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship." It's an episode jam packed with all sorts of nerdy goodness, and that's on top of the...Laurahttp://www.geektress.com/about.php#laura
We're back with our second Doctor Who review of the much anticipated "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship." It's an episode jam packed with all sorts of nerdy goodness, and that's on top of the titular dinosaurs populating the aforementioned spaceship. It was also the episode that gave us two excellent pieces of advice: 1. Whenever you enter someplace new, press buttons; and 2. carry a trowel.
Spoilers follow, so don't continue if you haven't seen the episode.]]>
Francene: OK, so my first impression is Mr Weasley! Lestrade! Filch! Also, Nefertiti is a slut.
Laura: Aw, it's not like she had a say in who she got to marry.
Francene: I know, but she was trying to get freaky with the Doctor, and that was the first thing we saw. She got cooler, and ass kicking.
Laura: I used to find Rupert Graves really attractive, and now he's just... Lestrade.
Editor's Note: He is still attractive thankyouverymuch.
Francene: I did take notes, but my daughter absconded with my notebook. I like the robots, they made me think of Fred and George Weasley, which is good. They were the comic relief of the episode.
Laura: I liked the robots too. They were apparently voiced by British famous people I don't know and therefore can't remember their names.
Francene: Comedy duo Mitchell and Webb, says Wikipedia. You can watch their show on Netflix.Laura: I liked the dinosaurs. I'm still heart broken about Tricey.
Francene: Oh, god, Tricey! He was so cute. I like when the Doctor gets pissed at people for doing mean stuff. He stands up for people and dinosaurs. I loved the fetch scene.
Laura: My notes literally have "I want a pet triceratops!" followed immediately by "NOOOOOOO!"
Francene: OK, Filch was so creepy, and I don't remember allusions to rape on this show before. He skeeved me out.
Laura: Yeah, I was really grossed out by Filch too, and the rape allusions surprised me. One of the most sadistic villains we have seen. I was surprised when the Doctor killed him (by sending the missiles at his ship), but I can't say I was sorry.
Francene: After what he did to Tricey, and the Silurians, he had no other choice really. That guy was just bad all around. If left alive, he would have done it to another race. I just kept thinking "he had to violate the Prime Directive".
Francene: I am worried about Amy, though. She is going to come to a bad end. Foreshadowing and all.
Laura: I'm worried about Amy too. They are definitely foreshadowing that something awful will happen to her, but then, it also seems a bit like her and Rory are outgrowing the Doctor. I mean, who wouldn't want to go drop off the dinosaurs? I think all the best Doctor Who episodes are bittersweet.
Francene: Yes, they are bittersweet. I know I will cry at what happens. I think that they are outgrowing him, and want to relax, but they have been through so much, they can't. Which, she actually says. I think he loves them too much to let them go completely.
Laura: I almost think letting them just move on might be more interesting than having some tragic ending. Martha moved on because she didn't want to stay with someone who was never going to love her back, but having companions who just decided it was time to grow up and settle down would really be something unique. After all, for Amy, the Doctor is her imaginary friend, her Raggedy Man, and we all outgrow them eventually. She probably loves him too much to completely let him go too though, which is why she keeps leaving all her jobs to wait for him. Waiting for him is such a huge part of who she is.
Francene: Yes, the girl who waited. I do think it would be interesting to let them just go on and live their lives, but I don't see that happening. The Doctor is her Drop Dead Fred I guess. But, she does love him, in a way Rory doesn't. He respects and trusts him, mostly, but he is very practical about it.
Laura: I think Rory enjoys the adventures, and he likes helping people, but he's more there for Amy. The three of them have formed a kind of family though. I think that's why it was interesting to introduce Rory's dad. On top of the fact that it's always fun to see someone normal experience the Doctor and the TARDIS and everything for the first time, it expanded and reinforced that family element.
Francene: I like the way the Rory's dad did not do any of the things people usually do. He was just pissed about being taken away from home. Hey, I wonder how many fanfics there are about the Doctor and Rory now that they smooched. Maybe they were there before, I try not to look at too many fics. I is afraid.
Laura: I'm sure they were there before, but that about a million more popped up on Sunday morning. It's kind of gross though, since Rory's his father-in-law, but I guess since he's already kissed his mother-in-law it's no big deal.
Francene: I thought it was a fun episode, but I can't help thinking it is the last party before something awful happens.
Laura: I liked it too. It says something about an episode with dinosaurs on a spaceship, when we talk about the characters more than the dinosaurs. That's quality.
As you can see, there was a lot to talk about, and we didn't even get around to discussing the fact that Amy got her very own flirty companions, or the fact that there was a sleeping, baby T-Rex. Next week's review is going to be delayed, but the episode is guest stars Farscape's John Crichton (aka Ben Browder), so you know I'm excited about that.
Now, I leave you to ponder what's on the Doctor's Christmas list.]]>
Getting Committed to the Asylum (of the Daleks)tag:www.geektress.com,2012://1.7852012-09-03T20:31:39Z2013-01-01T17:35:22Z (From Lissy-Strata's DeviantArt Page) I'm relatively new to Doctor Who, while Francene is a longtime fan, but we were both really excited for "Asylum of the Daleks," the start of the new season, on Saturday night. We thought we...Laurahttp://www.geektress.com/about.php#laura
(From Lissy-Strata's DeviantArt Page)
I'm relatively new to Doctor Who, while Francene is a longtime fan, but we were both really excited for "Asylum of the Daleks," the start of the new season, on Saturday night. We thought we would have a little virtual viewing party, and then share our reactions with our readers. Of course, we wound up being slightly more absorbed in watching the show than commenting on it. It was a pretty major episode, with a lot of changes and revelations though.
Spoilers follow, so don't continue if you haven't seen the episode.
It probably wouldn't make any sense to you if you haven't seen it anyway.]]>
Laura: 4 minutes in and I'm already desperately sad and jealous that I can't turn into a Dalek. Mostly sad though.
Francene: Ahhh!! That gave me tingles, I wont lie.
Laura: I didn't realize the part with the girl listening to the classical music loudly was part of the show at first. I probably missed something there.
Francene: The new companion! Seems promising. I love Daleks. Although, I think the green stuff that fell on Rory's face may have been Dalek poo.
Laura: Poor Rory. The worst stuff happens to him. I guess the new companion is from the future or something? Should be interesting.
Francene: Rory is the guy they torture. Can I just say that I love when Moffat has his characters say "This is Christmas". I makes me happy.
Laura: So, what do you think a Dalek has to do to end up in an asylum?
Francene: Maybe Daleks get sent to the Asylum if they dont want to exterminate. Start saying "Exfoliate."
Laura: I'm really sad about Amy and Rory. They better get back together. So not cool.
Francene: Oh, Doctor, you romantic little Timelord.
Laura: Aww, the Doctor is also an expert marriage counselor. He's the biggest Amy/Rory 'shipper.
Francene: So sad that they messed up Amy like that. Her only child has a time head, and is kidnapped.
Laura: Amy and Rory are by far the most dramatically fucked over of the companions, even compared to Donna, but they are also the best.
Laura: Oh, wow! Oswin...
Francene: Oh, that was so sad about her. Maybe she just thought she was Lady Gaga trapped in a metal dress. I am so glad Amy and Rory got back together. I admit, I wasnt on board with them at first, but they are sweet.
Laura: I loved Amy from the start. She's my favorite companion. It was the Eleventh Doctor that it took me a while to warm up to, and I still think I'm more invested in Amy and Rory than I am in him. I do love him too though. I'm really interested in seeing how Oswin eventually becomes a companion after that. I can't even fathom how that's going to happen.
Francene: I told my son he must visit her in another part of time when she is not a Dalek, seek her out somehow. He yelled "spoilers" at me. Is it a spoiler if I am just guessing? Hmmmph.
Laura: I don't think so, but I commend his commitment to waiting. Or maybe knowing that she is going to be the new companion is the spoiler? If he goes back earlier for her, he either has to bring her back and condemn her to that fate, or undo what she did with the Daleks. That would be interesting. Definitely a promising new companion.
Francene: I love when they get a "Dr. Who?" in the episode somewhere. Wonderful start to series 7.
Laura: Agreed on both counts! That's a pretty interesting reset to the Doctor/Dalek rivalry too. It should really open the door up to a lot of knew things.
As you can see, we both enjoyed the episode. What did you think? Are you excited about where all this might lead? What do you think is going to happen to Amy and Rory? Do you like Oswin? Let us know in the comments.]]>
For A Good Time, Call...tag:www.geektress.com,2012://1.7842012-08-24T20:02:51Z2013-01-01T17:35:22Z Hey everyone! If you haven't been to our Tumblr yet, we're running a contest for a new indie comedy called For A Good Time Call. You can check out the specifics right here. The movie is in theaters starting...Brenhttp://www.geektress.com/about.php#brenda
Hey everyone! If you haven't been to our Tumblr yet, we're running a contest for a new indie comedy called For A Good Time Call. You can check out the specifics right here.
The movie is in theaters starting August 31st, and our contest runs until August 29th. If you're on Tumblr, get over there and reblog! You could win a bunch of cool movie-related stuff (pictured above.)
And check out the movie trailer if you’re interested in seeing more! (It's Red Band, so NSFW.)]]>
Mermaid Corpses and Social Mediatag:www.geektress.com,2012://1.7832012-08-07T17:43:12Z2013-01-01T17:35:23Z Last night on Animal Planet, they re-ran a faux documentary program called Mermaid: The Body Found. It was in a similar vein as Trollhunter (though, nowhere near as well-produced,) and from what I gather, every time Animal Planet airs...Brenhttp://www.geektress.com/about.php#brenda
Last night on Animal Planet, they re-ran a faux documentary program called Mermaid: The Body Found. It was in a similar vein as Trollhunter (though, nowhere near as well-produced,) and from what I gather, every time Animal Planet airs this show, it generates quite a bit of confusion.
It's made to look like it's really one of those "found footage" "alien autopsy" sort of programs that explores the mysteries of mermaids. It's also supposed to inform people of actual technologies, as well. Still, there is some question why it was on a "real channel" like Animal Planet, a channel that is owned by the same company that owns Discovery Channel, which airs -- among other things -- a reality show about auctioneers (to better compete with the HISTORY Channel and their successful show about PAWN SHOPS.)
Don't get me wrong, I love Deadliest Catch, but it's not exactly educational programming, which doesn't happen all the time anymore on cable networks like Discovery. Can you even remember what TLC was supposed to stand for? Just a hint, it's not "Kitchen Boss Marathons." So when Chew's Rob Guillory was bewildered last night by a re-airing of Mermaid: Body Found, he did some looking and came up with possibly the greatest representation of awful comments currently on the interwebs.]]>
Obviously we're all going to have to watch this the next time it's on and compare / contrast partially masticated mermaid remains with Sharktopus, another film of import.]]>
Game of Thrones: Beyond the Walltag:www.geektress.com,2012://1.7772012-06-26T16:32:55Z2013-01-01T17:35:23Z (Summer is Coming tee from Busted Tees.) Sometimes, book reviews are hard, and it has nothing to do with the quality of the book. Sometimes, when it comes to writing a book review or vacuuming the apartment, I choose...Careyhttp://www.facebook.com/gypsycab79 (Summer is Coming tee from Busted Tees.)
Sometimes, book reviews are hard, and it has nothing to do with the quality of the book. Sometimes, when it comes to writing a book review or vacuuming the apartment, I choose vacuuming. Sometimes, I have a hard time coming up with something more than, "this is good."
I'm having one of those times now.]]>
Beyond the Wall: Exploring George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, edited by James Lowder, published by Smart Pop, an imprint of BenBella Books, the awesome folks who hooked us up with The Girl Who Was on Fire. Beyond the Wall is the same sort of deal - a series of essays examining different themes in Martin's Song of Ice and Fire universe. I did really enjoy a lot of the essays in this book. Martin's world is prime analysis material and his characters are painfully real.
But I'm having a difficult time getting beyond the "I liked it" analysis. While this collection is good, it's not on par with the essays in the Hunger Games collection. There's a lot of repetition in this volume, particularly in regard to magic and religion, which are very closely tied together in Martin's world. I felt that many of the essays that covered either topic were going over the same ground. I would have liked to see a little diversity there.
I did like this collection, and there were a few standout essays that deserve particular attention. Linda Antonsson and Elio M. Garcia, Jr. (creators of the most comprehensive ASoIaF wiki out there, Westeros.org,) discuss Romanticism (note the capital R there) in Martin's world in "The Palace of Love, the Palace of Sorrow: Romanticism in A Song of Ice and Fire." Martin himself is fascinated by the idea of the Byronic Hero, and both of the Lannister brothers, in addition to Rhaegar Targaryan, fit the description: "mad, bad, and dangerous to know." I'm personally obsessed with the mystery of Rhaegar Targaryan and Lyanna Stark, so I enjoyed Antonsson and Garcia's Romantic take on their story. Note: I think Rhaegar and Lyanna were in love and Robert Baratheon was full of crap.
Adam Whitehead writes a very interesting analysis of time in Westeros in his essay, "An Unreliable World: History and Timekeeping in Westeros." Several times throughout the story, Martin indicates that time does not pass in quite the way the inhabitants of Westeros think it does. In a world where seasons last for years, is there really an accurate way to mark the passing of weeks and months? Samwell Tarly brings this up within the actual narrative when he comes across several conflicting accounts of Night Watch history. Whitehead deftly analyzes this discrepency and indicates that Martin has an explanation for why the seasons are so out of whack.
Another stand out essay comes from Myke Cole: "Art Imitates War: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in A Song of Ice and Fire." Cole discusses the reality of PTSD and how PTSD applies to two specific characters: Arya Stark and Theon Greyjoy. Cole expertly compares the two in relation to the different types of PTSD. I especially enjoyed learning more about PTSD in Cole's essay. Being able to associate a real condition to fictional characters (that we really get to know very intimately over the course of the series) makes that condition easier to understand.
Finally, my favorite essay of the collection focuses on my favorite character. Matt Staggs, whose name I recognize from Suvudu, discusses sociopathy in A Song of Ice and Fire in his essay, "Petyr Baelish and the Mask of Sanity." Oh man... how I do love Littlefinger. Petyr Baelish is the Benjamin Linus of Westeros, or should I say that Benjamin Linus is the Petyr Baelish of Lost, since Westeros came first? Either way, Baelish is a master manipulator who plays the game of thrones simply for the sake of playing - and winning.
Staggs puts Baelish under the microscope of psychology and comes to the conclusion that Littlefinger is fucked up, but especially fucked up because he's so good at pretending to be normal. While every other character (even Cersei) has their reasons for doing the awful things they do, Baelish does things on a whim. Martin gives Baelish some back story - he suffered great humiliation and unrequited love as a young man - but the adult Baelish doesn't behave in accordance with the story of his past. Petyr Baelish does what Petyr Baelish wants. I think that's why I like him so much.
So, this collection was good and some of the essays are great. If you're a hardcore fan of A Song of Ice and Fire, this is a must read/must own. For the casual fan, not so much. Beyond the Wall comes out today (June 26th.)]]>
Liveblogging the Seventiestag:www.geektress.com,2012://1.7822012-06-20T17:09:20Z2013-01-01T17:35:23Z On Saturday morning, I awoke at 6 am and then decided that was too damned early to be awake on a Saturday. So I decided to stay in bed as long as possible, which meant reading Twitter and, eventually,...Brenhttp://www.geektress.com/about.php#brenda
On Saturday morning, I awoke at 6 am and then decided that was too damned early to be awake on a Saturday. So I decided to stay in bed as long as possible, which meant reading Twitter and, eventually, going through my nightstand looking for those issues of Casanova I bought a while back but never read.
What I stumbled upon was a bag of vintage comics I'd purchased probably two years ago at an antique store for $4 apiece. Included was Lois Lane #129, and Supergirl #2, both with amazing covers. Basically the recipe to get me to buy a silver or golden age comic is to have an amazing cover (the ones that are "cliffhangers" are my favorite) and to be less than $5. (Because I am not actually a collector, just cheap.)
The end result is me, lying in bed and tweeting my reactions, which I'll recap here, because not only am I cheap, I'm lazy.]]>
11:08 AM: Oh, Cary Bates. You just made my whole day with this panel.
11:13 AM: Spoiler alert: The cure is in a magic mushroom in Mirage Mountain. I am not making this up.
11:17 AM: Hey, guess what, the mushroom causes sudden growth and they're in Kandor. Shenanigans, right? This is now my favorite comic ever.
11:36 AM: The backup Zatanna story was written by @LenWein and he made her look like a dumbass so it's the best Zatanna comic I've ever read.
11:37 AM: The highlight was when the Pied Piper points out to her how stupid she is. Also: Giant rats.
11:44 AM: Someone's trying to sell that comic on eBay for $55. Godspeed, tell them about the sickle cell anemia. [Edit: Hey, look, they dropped the price to $49.50 since Saturday. A bargain! Again, I paid $4 for a really great condition copy. MARKET VALUES! SUPPLY DEMAND COMMERCE ETC.]
11:47 AM: Spoiler Alert: Neither of them give a shit about the kids after this panel. Reason #2 I like Wein's Zatanna:
---> Interjection by @Matthew_Spicer, 11:55 AM: Zatanna doesn't use the "AIMENA LLEC ELKCIS ERUC" spell?
11:58 AM: @matthew_spicer They're unrelated stories, but magic mushrooms did cure the Professor's mysterious brain fever.
TO SUM UP, because I did a terrible job recapping this first comic: Supergirl #2 is the story of how Linda Danvers has a crush on a professor trying to cure Sickle Cell Anemia, who also has a mysterious brain cloud that is killing him. She miniaturizes them and flies him to Kandor, where he finds a magic mushroom that cures his ailment and also by the way, she has a super bitchy boyfriend named Jeff:
...I'm glad I don't have access to Supergirl #3, because what if she actually puts up with that guy for several issues and doesn't punch him?
12:01 PM: On to the Lois Lane book now, and why does she have 3 roommates? It's like they're about to have a gasoline fight.
12:05 PM: Lois giving Supes the business for being a creeptor. LADIES ARE SURVIVALISTS, TOO.
12:06 PM: PLOT TWIST. Lois the Hiking Expert wore a miniskirt and go-go boots for her nature excursion.
12:08 PM: Now they're all eating a mysterious plant that the stranger in the forest gave them. Fingers crossed this is a parable about roofies.
12:09 PM: Sidebar: You guys just got high and wrote comics in the seventies, don't even try to deny it.
---------> Interjection from @SamhainNight: Eeek! Lois! #BigRedFlags #ThingsYouLearnNotToDoGrowingUpInCalifornia
12:12 PM: Now the roommates are giving Lois shit for having a wireless radio in the forest. No mention of the boots from Jumpsuit*. #PickingHerBattles
12:13 PM: I'm live tweeting a comic. Maybe it's time to get out of bed.
12:16 PM: SHE JUST TRIED TO MOTIVATE SUPERMAN WITH PUSSY. I can't even. New favorite comic ever.
12:19 PM: The best part was how she ditched him in the quicksand to go look for more magic roots. I think this was an episode of Smallville.
12:24 PM: Now the crossover fanfic/mini comic I was gonna do where Wonder Woman takes Loki for ice cream seems lacking in crazy. I give up.
*Lois had three roommates whose names were not mentioned. In order of character development, there was the Token Fat Girl (always commenting on food), Attractive Afro Wearer, and Jumpsuit.
Of course, it's always the girl with the afro that gets trapped in quicksand.
And if you're wondering, the strange guy in the forest giving out magic roots was running a burglary ring. Yeah, I dunno. Comics, amirite?
]]>
Prometheus: Shoulda Just Re-Watched Predatorstag:www.geektress.com,2012://1.7812012-06-11T15:57:58Z2013-01-01T17:35:23Z This image a metaphor for the entire film. A beautiful mess. Imagine Die Hard. (If you're on this site, I'm gonna assume you've seen it at least once. More than likely, you're like every other geek who counts it...Brenhttp://www.geektress.com/about.php#brenda
This image a metaphor for the entire film. A beautiful mess.
Imagine Die Hard. (If you're on this site, I'm gonna assume you've seen it at least once. More than likely, you're like every other geek who counts it as a "Christmas movie" and watches it several times every December.)
Die Hard is a great movie. I'll go out on a not-very-dangerous limb here and say it actually defines the action movie genre, in the best possible way. So picture it in your head: An average schmo -- middle aged, balding, blue-collar looking dude -- finds himself in a crazy terrorist hostage situation on Christmas Eve. Dude's just trying to patch things up with his wife, and he suddenly he has to be John Wayne.
As we all know, at the end, the villain gets thrown out of a window and plummets 30-some floors to his death.
Now imagine the end of Die Hard, and picture Hans Gruber slinking away laughing "I'll get you NEXT TIME, JOHN MCCLANE, MUAH HA HA!" Winky wink to the camera, fade out, credits up.
Be honest. You'd want to punch that movie in the dick. ]]>
The Wizard of Oz where the Wicked Witch of the West doesn't melt. Dorothy still goes home to Kansas, but this crazy bitch with the flying monkeys lives to torture midgets another day.
Picture an Indiana Jones movie where Nazis don't get their faces melted off.
Picture Goldfinger, only Goldfinger gets a parachute, too.
A lot of stories that are pretty good still rely on the villain getting his in the end. If you leave a popcorn movie with an open-ended question of whether or not there's more to the story, the audience is going to be annoyed. It doesn't matter how great the first two hours are, if you get through a movie where there is a clear villain/hero setup, and the villain gets away with it, I call shenanigans. It seems like Hollywood is more interested in trying to set up sequels by not killing off a perfectly good bad guy, than by actually attempting to make a blockbuster movie that's one complete story.
This situation, of course, is less black-and-white for other sorts of films. I can't imagine The Way of the Gun or John Carpenter's: The Thing or even Casablanca having resolutions where everything is happy or explained completely, wrapping up the story up in a neat bow. Those other sorts of movies have something that Prometheus doesn't, though: they're actually smartly written. They aren't obnoxiously ambitious. They're evenly composed. And though their resolutions may not be storybook, they're on par with the rest of the story.
The first two Alien films were both smartly written and pretty much self-contained. In Alien, the end suspense is in Ripley's multiple attempts to destroy or escape the alien creature. We keep thinking she's safe, she keeps finding out it's crawled in to an exhaust port. Then you get to the very end, where it finally seems like she's killed the thing and put herself in to statis. Credits up. Hooray.
Aliens surprisingly follows almost the exact same format for its ending, though you might not have noticed. Ripley tries a couple times to kill the alien and get away, and at the very end you think she's actually done it. (Until Alien 3, whose merits we can debate another time.)
The important thing about Alien was that you left the theater thinking "She got the bastard, ha ha!" not, "I hope in eight years that dude who made The Terminator finds a way to add a shitload more special effects and then kill Paul Reiser." It was a complete story. And the brilliant thing about Aliens was that it found a way to bring back the alien, and be a sequel in a believable sort of way, and, it also manages to be its own movie. It has a different tempo and sensibility, but it can stand alone. In fact, lots of people either forgot they've seen Alien or have never seen Alien, and they loveAliens, that's how well each movie stands on its own.
Let's leave aside that Prometheus is full of plot holes. Let's also forget all the metaphors and religious pondering and everything that makes the movie tedious to sit through at times. Let's even set aside the sometimes hammy or clunky dialogue and the unsurprising plot twists and the two dimensional characters. Most of the previous problems I can live with if the movie has a decent payoff. (The Losers would have been something I would have lovingly suggested people try and catch the next time it's on HBO if the villain had just died in the end instead of literally getting on a bus and getting away.)
My main problem with Prometheus is two fold. [SPOILERS AHEAD] (One) The opening scene never ended up making much sense. Here's this alien guy, he's maybe some sort of priest (he's wearing a robe and has what looks like a ceremonial tea cup full of tar), he's watching a spaceship take off, and then he drinks the bubbling goo and dies. I was confused, but I thought perhaps the film would eventually explain everything.
In fact, I probably wasn't as bored as my husband was during the rest of the film, because the entire time, I kept thinking back to that alien from the opening scene. Did he know his beverage was poison? Was he committing suicide? Later, when you find out the goo is biological weaponry that was headed towards Earth, I wondered if he was taking some sort of stand against his buddies. Or was he was just bummed because the spaceship was leaving without him -- wait, was that spaceship taking off or landing? Was he on his planet, or the planet they were manufacturing the disease on? Was he doing some sort of experimentation? Was he trying to create a master race of super alien?
It doesn't matter. Because (Two) you're never going to find out in THIS movie. We're making a FRANCHISE, everyone! Open-ended resolution! The alien was not only NOT killed, a NEW alien springs up! And it looks exactly like the aliens you've come to know and love, HO HO HO, origin story and the launch of a new series! EVERYONE SHUT UP AND ENJOY THE SPECIAL F/X.
And that's when I realized I should've instead caught Cumberbatch as Frankenstein's Monster in this theater the day before.
Some footnotes:
I have no idea how the original comic series The Losers actually ended. Perhaps there was only one villain throughout, and the movie only tells one of the many stories these guys have in regards to pursuing their foe. But you can't approach a movie thinking you're going to have a second or a third chance to finish telling the story. You just can't.
I'm less impressed with the attempt to incorporate Alien Vs. Predator via the Predator-like design of the alien spacesuits than I think they wanted me to be. I'd rather just re-watch Predators, because Adrien Brody is an awesome Batman.
“It has absolutely no message,” insisted Scott of the first Alien. “It works on a very visceral level and its only point is terror, and more terror.” [source] -- really, Ridley? So would you say Prometheus is therefore all point and very little terror? Because there were only a couple cheap thrill moments in the whole movie.]]>
Repairman Jack - I Wanna Party With You!tag:www.geektress.com,2012://1.7802012-06-01T15:15:49Z2013-01-01T17:35:23Z (Jeremy Renner needs to play Repairman Jack) I have a confession to make. I'm cheating on my collection of sci-fi and fantasy novels. My brother introduced me to Repairman Jack back in March. He'd been going on for years...Careyhttp://www.facebook.com/gypsycab79
(Jeremy Renner needs to play Repairman Jack)
I have a confession to make. I'm cheating on my collection of sci-fi and fantasy novels.
My brother introduced me to Repairman Jack back in March. He'd been going on for years about how I would really like him but I have such a vast pile of books to read that I never listened to him. But then, I had the awesome chance to meet the creator of this fictional fix-it man at C2E2 - F. Paul Wilson. I figured 'dI better read The Tomb so I didn't seem like a complete tool when I asked him to autograph a book for my brother. ]]>
Repairman Jack doesn't fix things. He fixes situations. When the police have failed or are not an option, when a person has no one else to turn to, there is always Repairman Jack. For a hefty fee, Jack will beat up your abusive husband, take back compromising documents that have found their way into the wrong hands, or stab a pedophile right in the junk.
He flies way under the legal radar, taking pains to make himself as invisible as possible. He doesn't have a single license, social security number, or credit card in his own name. He doesn't work for free, and he only works for just causes. He doesn't kill people unless he has to.
Jack is like the Punisher, but with a narrower scope of anger and hatred. He won't shoot you in the face for running a red light, but piss him off, and your unmaimed days are probably numbered.
So yeah, this is way cool. The Punisher is one of my favorite comic book characters. I find the idea of street justice really appealing. I can't even tell you how many times I've felt the need to punch people in the mouth for saying something ignorant, or how often I think about lying to the liars and cheating the cheaters.
What takes Jack from cool to awesome is the supernatural element running throughout the series. When we first meet Jack in The Tomb, he's been hired for two jobs: first, find and return a stolen necklace, and second, find an old lady who just up and vanished. Of course these two fix-it jobs end up being related, ending in a showdown with evil incarnate. Jack is forever marked by the experience - figuratively and literally. He continues to take fix-it jobs, but continuously runs into various agents of evil in each book, known in the series as the Otherness. Repairman Jack is what would happen if the Punisher wandered into the land of Mulder and Scully.
However, Repairman Jack was originally intended as a one off character. While The Tomb is the first Repairman Jack book, it's the second book in Wilson's Adversary Cycle. I actually don't have a whole lot to say about the Adversary Cycle because I haven't yet read the first book - The Keep. My plan is to finish all 15 Repairman Jack books and then go back and start the Adversary Cycle. From what I understand, this doesn't hurt the reading experience.
I find Jack's growth as a character interesting. There are 14 years between the first book and the second, Legacies. I'm talking 14 real years - not 14 years in the life of Jack. I'm only on the 7th book (Gateways) but I've come to appreciate Jack as a character so much that tearing myself away from his story to read all of Wilson's books in chronological order has been impossible.
Jack has an unwavering moral compass and I love that. I also love his addiction to bad horror movies (because I totally didn't marry someone with the same addiction) and fascinations with all things kitsch (again, I didn't marry anyone remotely resembling this). Wilson is a great writer because Jack is more than his job - he comes across as a real person.
And Jack isn't the only relatable character in the series. Other regulars include Jack's heart attack-waiting-to-happen best friend, Abe (complete with blue parakeet, Parabellum), and his girlfriend Gia and her daughter Vicky. Abe, Gia, and Vicky all contribute greatly to the appeal of Jack, but they're their own people as well. Too often, I find a main character's love interest just that - a love interest. But Gia is her own entity and when we first meet her, she's dumped Jack. In fact, she's still not too happy with Jack's line of work, but she grudgingly accepts what he does if it means keeping Vicky safe (and often it does, because sometimes Jack does some dumb shit things to put Gia and Vicky in danger).
Wilson's one off side characters are also well written and there are a few that I hope to see again, especially the psychic medium Kenton brothers from The Haunted Air, and Anya and her chihuahua Oyv from Gateways. I haven't finished Gateways yet, so Anya might be dead - I don't know. But I just read the part where Oyv ate his way out of a motherfucking alligator. A chihuahua ate his goddamn way out of an alligator's stomach! That is so badass. You should all read the books for that scene alone.
I'm completely enamored with Repairman Jack and can't decide if I want to date him or be him. I'm really excited to see where this series goes and how it all ties into the Adversary Cycle. Speaking of, the finale to the Adversary Cycle, Nightworld, has just hit book stores. If I wasn't so far behind with Wilson's work, I'd be reading it right now. For all things Repairman Jack, including Wilson's time table for the Secret History of the World, check out www.repairmanjack.com.]]>
C2E2 Roundup: The Highlightstag:www.geektress.com,2012://1.7762012-05-01T15:46:50Z2013-01-01T17:35:23Z Due to a bunch of scheduling snafus, Carey was the only Geektress that was able to make it to our annual Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo meetup this year. But she carried on like a champ and did a...Careyhttp://www.facebook.com/gypsycab79
Due to a bunch of scheduling snafus, Carey was the only Geektress that was able to make it to our annual Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo meetup this year. But she carried on like a champ and did a bunch of picture taking and blogging for us. Unfortunately, the site was suffering its malware malady and so she posted her roundup on her personal blog. So, after the jump, we have some of the highlights. ]]>
FRIDAY
[My] boss and I went over to the American Library Association's booth at C2E2, which was being run by a remarkable Effie Trinket cosplayer. She had a different outfit for every day of the con and sometimes changed mid-day.
Sean Astin was autographing almost all day, but at $40 a signature, his line was never very long. Same for Nicholas Brendon. Only die hard fans were willing to spend that kind of cash on these guys. The highlight of nerd celebrities on Friday was Jhonen Vasquez, creator of Invader Zim and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. I missed out on both of those nerd boats when they were at their peak, but my friend Kristy waited in line for almost an hour to meet him.
SATURDAY
The thing about C2E2 that has both delighted and annoyed me is its inclusion of literary authors as bona fide nerds. Two years ago, I got to meet George R.R. Martin. Game of Thrones wasn't on HBO yet, so I walked right up to him, asked him to sign my first edition copy of The Game of Thrones, told him my favorite character was Littlefinger and then he called me creepy. Good times. This year, a few big names were in attendance - most notably Anne Rice (if you don't know who she is, just GTFO) and Charlene Harris (the Sookie Stackhouse books that True Blood is based on). One would think C2E2 would have a hopping publisher's row. Selling books by either of these authors would have been like printing money. But no. There were no sci-fi/fantasy publishers at the con. No Tor, DAW, or DelRey Spectra. They'd had a presence in the past and the last two years, I've come away from C2E2 with a backpack full of ARCs to review for Geektress.
Anne Rice and Charlene Harris both only signed for one hour total over the course of three days and their lines were capped off hours before they were scheduled to appear. I didn't really care though because my main mission was to meet F. Paul Wilson, author of the Repairman Jack series. First, he's my brother's favorite author (other than Stephen King) and I would have been an awful sister if I didn't get a book signed for him. Second, I also read the book so I wouldn't look like a complete asshole when I asked Wilson to sign one for my brother. Wilson brought a bunch of copies of The Tomb with him and also signed one for me and didn't charge me for the book. He also let me take a picture with him, which I texted to my brother just for proof of how awesome I am. That experience was one of the highlights of the convention.
I spent my morning drooling over John Barrowman with my awesome friend Kristy. Our husbands and [my Boss] went off to do their own things that morning. Kristy and I had a blast listening to Barrowman talk about how gay he was, Torchwood, the YA book he wrote with his sister, and his dogs. But sometimes I had a hard time hearing him over how beautiful he was. I mean, there were angels singing in his presence he was so gorgeous.
SUNDAY
Sunday was Kids' Day at C2E2 so there were tons of adorable children and babies all dressed up. I don't have any pictures of them because I didn't want to be that creepy weirdo that was all, "Can I take a picture of your kids?" I saw a lot of Adventure Time cosplay and yelled, "What time is it?!" every chance I could. Some of them weren't very enthusiastic about answering me, but if you're going to cosplay Jake or Finn, you have to be prepared to get yelled at a lot. I yelled "What time is it?" at a Princess Bubblegum while in the bathroom and she loudly and happily answered me from three stalls over.
Despite my exhaustion, I experienced my other con highlight on Sunday - meeting Cliff Chiang. I am in love with the Wonder Woman relaunch and especially in love with Chiang's work. We talked a little and I told him how much I like his work on Wonder Woman. I said that my WW favorite panel was the one in issue #1 where Wonder Woman straight up headbutts a centaur in the face. Apparently, that was Brian Azzarello's idea, as he's a huge fan of wrestling. Chiang's commission list was full, and he didn't have any prints of the centaur headbutt, but I did buy a print of Wonder Woman swinging a bloody battle axe in a field of fallen arrows. I can't wait to get that framed and use it as inspiration in my own violent writing.
I also bought a Dex Starr print from artist Sara Richard. Not only was it beautiful and inexepensive, but $5 from every sale of that particular print was going to the Humane Society. Rock on, Sara Richard.
You can read the whole three part recap over at Carey's blogspot!]]>
The Acacia Trilogy: Parents Just Don't Understandtag:www.geektress.com,2012://1.7742012-04-11T17:32:30Z2013-01-01T17:35:23Z I know I'm slow on the uptake with book reviews. I have so many that I try to read that I don't usually get to new ones until they've been out for a few months. Unless of course publishers...Careyhttp://www.facebook.com/gypsycab79
I know I'm slow on the uptake with book reviews. I have so many that I try to read that I don't usually get to new ones until they've been out for a few months. Unless of course publishers send me ARCs (hint, hint - I need more of these!). I finally got around to finishing David Anthony Durham's Acacia trilogy this week. The final book, The Sacred Band, came out late in 2011. The trilogy as a whole was a rare, satisfying read. I like to compare books to food. Books are food for the brain, and like food for the stomach, they can taste great (or awful), fill you up (or leave you starving), and nourish you (or give you gut rot and cavities). Durham's trilogy manages to do all three. ]]>
The Acacia trilogy is epic in scope. We travel through many years and get to know a good number of characters from a variety of different nations. Many characters come full circle from being children in the first book to having kids of their own by the end. This circle is at the heart of the trilogy. Most actions, violent or benevolent, are driven by the love parents have for their children. The first book, Acacia, ushers readers onto the isle of Acacia and into the privileged lives of the four royal children - Aliver, Corinn, Mena, and Dariel. Their world falls apart when their father, King Leodan, is assassinated. Before he dies, Leodan arranges for his children to be taken to different ends of the earth, to be raised away from the chaos of a nation under attack. Only Aliver ends up living the life his father intended for him, but each child grows and lives through their days with their father's memory never far away.
It's difficult to write about these books without spoiling them, but Durham deftly twists the ending of Acacia in a way that would make George RR Martin proud. In fact, it's easy to compare the two authors, but only to an extent. While the world of Acacia can be harsh, it is also beautiful. Where Martin likes to dwell in the slime and stink of Westeros, Durham rises above that, while letting his readers know that the slime and stink of Acacia still exists. In fact, the slime and stink of Acacia are what keeps the nation running.
In the second book, The Other Lands, three of the four siblings are reunited. Corinn is the undisputed Queen of the Acacian Empire and now has her own child. In this book, readers learn more about the Quota - a multi generational trade with the Other Lands. In exchange for Mist, a drug that subdues the populace, Acacia delivers tens of thousands of children to the Other Lands with no knowledge of what happens to them. While it was Aliver's dream to end this abomination, the journey to the Other Lands is Dariel's to make.
This book, along with the third, focus heavily on the protection of future generations, most especially evident in Corinn's relationship with her own son, Aaden. A lot of the second and third books focus on children learning from their parents' mistakes and also making some of their own. More so than in the first book, Durham seems to be sending the message that the love a parent has for their child is the most sacred love one can feel, and all kinds of beautiful and horrible things can come from such unwavering emotion. I get the feeling that while this love can be a wonderful thing, it's also terrifying. To Durham's credit, he conveys this in a way that doesn't alienate those who are not parents (like myself).
While the third book, The Sacred Band, takes place chronologically after The Other Lands, Durham uses it to look back at conflicts twenty two generations in the past. These conflicts, which have become part of Acacian mythology and religion, are still haunting the land. For generation after generation, the circle that is life has continued from father to son and mother to daughter.
In The Other Lands, we meet the Auldek race from across the sea, who make war on Acacia in order to feel alive again. They have not been able to bear children for many hundreds of years and in their inability to create life, they choose to take it. At this point, Durham's narrative becomes entirely driven by thoughts of the future. To the Auldek the immortality of a single life is nothing compared to immortality through creation.
Corinn continues to make horrible decisions in securing her son's empire. Mena avoids having children while putting Acacia first, much to the chagrin of her husband. Dariel fathers children on both sides of the ocean (because he's a total pimp). Even the dragon from The Other Lands (beautiful Elya) has children now, although they have been reappropriated by Corinn.
The Acacia trilogy as a whole seems to be on some level a metaphor for parenthood. No matter how determined a person is to raise a good kid or fairly rule an empire, they're going to mess up. And maybe your empire will rebel or your kid will hate some of the things you've done. Real power comes not from taking decisive action or making executive decisions - it comes from owning up to the mistakes those actions may have caused and doing your best to fix them.
The Sacred Band brings the trilogy full circle (hence the title - at least partially). Acacia has stopped looking to the past for guidance and started looking to the future. Currently, Durham doesn't have any plans to continue this series, but a part of me feels like this story is just starting. Then again, I think Durham has left his readers in a great place to continue the story on their own. Much like a good meal, the end of the Acacia trilogy has left me pleasantly full, with many good memories of the experience.
Fans of both traditional and more modern fantasy will relate to Durham's work. In addition to the Acacia trilogy, Durham has also writen the historical fiction powerhouse Pride of Carthage, and Gabriel's Story, set in the old West. He's currently working on a mid-grade young adult fantasy book, which I'm sure will kick ass.]]>
A Belated X-Files Valentinetag:www.geektress.com,2012://1.7682012-03-26T15:00:38Z2013-01-01T17:35:23Z When I was in my teens and early 20s, I lived for The X-Files. I had the hots for both Mulder and Scully. And also Krycek, occasionally Skinner, and the cute bearded Lone Gunman. Shoot, I wanted to have...Careyhttp://www.facebook.com/gypsycab79
When I was in my teens and early 20s, I lived for The X-Files. I had the hots for both Mulder and Scully. And also Krycek, occasionally Skinner, and the cute bearded Lone Gunman. Shoot, I wanted to have Chris Carter's babies. I watched Millenium when that came on, even though it was only peripherally related to The X-Files. I even watched The Lone Gunmen, and it made me weep, but I watched it. I saw the movie on opening night - twice. And in my mind, there is only one movie - I like to think I only imagained the second one in a horrible nightmare.]]>
I had every bit of X-Files merchandise that came out - the books, the VHS tapes, a t-shirt for every day of the week, all of the action figures (even the one that came with a dead body in a bodybag), a clock, and every Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide that featured my beloved FBI agents. I begged my mom to tape all the episodes for me when FX ran the whole series in order, even "Home," the episode with the muderous inbred brothers that couldn't be aired before 11pm after its initial air date.
I fought with my boyfriend at the time because he hated Mulder and Scully, and wonder now how I ever could have dated anyone so dumb. I went to an X-Files convention in New York City in 1999 and met Nicholas Lea. I saw Gillian Anderson do a Q&A where she spoiled the season finale because she didn't realize the episode hadn't aired yet (it was the one when the X-Files office burned down). David Duchovny was in town filming Saturday Night Live that same weekend and I was torn between hating him for not coming to the con and desperately wanting to stalk his sexy ass. I was a complete junkie.
In the last couple of months, I've realized I never stopped being a junkie. I thought maybe my love for Lost had superceded my love for Mulder and Scully. Yes, Lost and I had a hot and heavy relationship, but that show was a total tease. The X-Files and I loved each other, and in the end we just went seperate ways. The second movie was like realizing my beloved ex-show had gotten fat and ugly in our time apart. But some friends and I have been revisitng the good times of the first season on Thursday nights and I now know there will always be a place in my heart for the X.
Some of these first season episodes are still just as shockingly good now as they were almost 20 years ago. The two parter, "Squeeze" and "Tooms" featuring Doug Hutchison, former Lost actor and current babysitter/husband of Courtney Stodden, scared the hell out of me when I was a teenager. (I almost wrote shit, but the opposite happened - I was so scared to use the toilet after watching those episodes that I held my shit in for an unhealthy length of time.) [This is perhaps an overshare, Carey. I'll allow it, because it'll annoy Laura. -Ed.] Hutchison played Eugene Victor Tooms, this weird dude who could elongate his body and sneak through the tiniest of entries (including toilets) to eat peoples' livers.
"Eve" is also in season one. Aside from being the inspiration behind a hideous band name, this episode was also terrifying. Twin girls living 3,000 miles apart exsanguinate their fathers and try to kill Mulder and Scully with digitallis poison. We find out that the girls were part of a genetic experiment featuring extra chromosomes that caused heightened sociopathy and violence.
Both of these episodes were monster of the week type shows, which essentially what The X-Files was for the first season. Season one barely touches on the overarching mythology of the show, which in fact doesn't come into play until Gillian Anderson gets pregnant and Chris Carter had to figure out what to do with her. Hence her abduction and absence from many episodes of season two.
The third episode that really stands out in season one is "Beyond the Sea." While this isn't a mythology episode, it is one of the most significant episodes in the entire series in terms of defining Mulder and Scully as individuals and as a team. In this episode, Scully's father dies and she is desperate to believe that his ghost has contacted her. On the heels of Col. Scully's death, death row inmate Luthor Lee Boggs has requested to speak to Mulder in regard to the recent kidnapping and murder of a young couple. Boggs had been to death row once before but was granted a reprieve while sitting in the electric chair. Because of this experience, Boggs claims he can now channel the spirits of the dead. Scully wants more than anything to talk to her father through Boggs, but the eternal skeptic in her prevails by the end of the episode. "Beyond the Sea" is the basis for the Mulder/Scully belief conflict that pervades throughout the series. In this episode, we see that just because Scully practises the logic of hard science, she yearns for something more. Mulder knows this, which is why he never gives up on her.
I'm falling in love with this show all over again. The first season has its problems - real money isn't being spent on the show yet and Mark Snow is still using some stock creepy music. Scully looks a little frumpy, Mulder's hair is huge, and the cell phones are even more huge. But the little things that look funny now are charming and the outdated computers, landlines, and bepers don't take away from the story. In fact, it's kind of fun to remember what life was like in the mid 90s. The stories are just as good. If you loved The X-Files back in the day, it's worth a rewatch. Just try your best to put Californication out of your mind. Yeah, Mulder was a total perv with a ginormous porn collection and a death prediction of autoerotic asphyxiation, but his heart belonged to Scully. And my heart belongs to them, forever and ever.]]>
Comic Reviews and Parenthetical Asidestag:www.geektress.com,2012://1.7732012-03-20T15:36:52Z2013-01-01T17:35:23Z It was a pretty big week for comics last week. Brian K Vaughn's Saga finally dropped (I didn't read it), and another much-anticipated book, Womanthology, showed up in comic stores (I sort of read it, but I'm in it,...Brenhttp://www.geektress.com/about.php#brenda
It was a pretty big week for comics last week. Brian K Vaughn's Saga finally dropped (I didn't read it), and another much-anticipated book, Womanthology, showed up in comic stores (I sort of read it, but I'm in it, so I mostly just obsessed over my mistakes.) (I'm on page 194, go look it up.)
However, three much more exciting (to me, anyway) stories ended up on my digital (and actual) doorstep this week. I didn't think I could top the thrill of seeing my own work in print, but the following three comics were so well done, they have confirmed my choice to only read creator-owned / indie comics from here on out.]]>
Queen Crab, and Rachel Deering's Anathema. That was what seemed like forever ago. Actually getting to read what I'd been receiving email updates about for months, and not being disappointed, was kind of surprising.
Queen Crab ended up being a hardcover book released by Image Comics, and is available in comic book shops right now. Artiz Eiguren provides the art, and it's beautifully understated for a story about a girl with crab claws for hands. I felt most of the book downplayed the entire crustacean-mutation angle in favor of a study of the main character, Ginger.
My one complaint about this book is that it was the wrong length. It either needed to be longer, or shorter, I can't decide which. If you shorten it at a certain turning point (no spoilers) about 2/3rds of the way through, you lose the last third where Ginger actually explores how she came to be part crab, part woman. But that was the portion of the book that intrigued me the most, not only because it involved creepy dolphin noises and luminescent eyeballs, but the return of a character from earlier, Vincent, whom I was hoping we'd get to know better.
Shortening the book improves the pacing, though. There's a "and then two years later" gap that is sometimes the kiss of death. In this case it feels like the start of the next chapter, but it doesn't finish, it leaves you with an open ending. It's frustrating to think, since this was his first stab at financing a book through Kickstarter, that Palmiotti might not get to revisit these people, and finish Ginger's story.
So I guess my second complaint is that the characters are far more interesting than they're given time to be. That's to Palmiotti's credit, turning what could be a gruesome sci-fi horror comic in to a more dramatic character-driven story. (I refuse to use the term "Cronenberg-esque" except to tell you that I'm not going to say it.) That's my argument for a second volume -- I'd like more Vinny, more of Ginger's sister, and more of her fellow co-workers. (Okay, maybe I just like mermaids.) (But really, what is with the crab claws? I NEED TO KNOW SO HURRY UP WITH THE SECOND VOLUME.)
Next was Anathema, a good old-fashioned horror comic from Womanthology editor Rachel Deering, with amazing art (and on kind of short notice!) from Chris Mooneyham. I love ghosts, ghouls, vampires, witches, demons, all sorts of supernatural. Rachel has put a new twist on werewolf tales that's really refreshing. After four seasons of Being Human, it's a great change of pace to read a story that involves someone who wants to become a supernatural beastie.
It's a very dark tale, but there's just the right amount of backstory to smoothly put you right in to the world of lesbian witches and werewolves. Again, I got to the end of this one and was annoyed there wasn't more. Anathema #1 is definitely a first issue, and if it doesn't get a second issue I'm going to drive to your house and ask you why you didn't take my advice and buy it.
Last thing I read this week was a digital copy of Chris Ryder's Dames in the Atomic Age. He tweeted a ten page preview that peaked my interest. It was noir and the supernatural, so completely in my wheelhouse. It also had boxing and Ruskie thugs and spaceray guys and aforementioned dames. All in the first ten pages.
When I got the full comic, I didn't think it could possibly be better than Anathema -- which is unbelievably great -- but then again I thought Queen Crab was pretty fucking impressive when I first cracked it open, too. Everything this week just got progressively better and better, from a starting point that was pretty high to begin with.
Marc Sandroni does most of the heavy lifting in Dames as far as the art is concerned, but Mike Vosberg, Paul Little, Tony Fleecs, Brandon “Ragnar” Johnson, Andy Suriano, Chris Moreno, Tone Rodriguez, Mark Dos Santos, Brad Rader, and Rahsan Ekedal also contribute pin-ups and interstitial comics that hold the entire book together.
It's the story of a post-World War II era gumshoe whose best friend is a heavyweight boxer. Together they're trying to solve what they believe to be a kidnapping, but it spirals from pulp fiction to other-world territory seamlessly. I wasn't expecting the between-chapter comics that sometimes acted like a Tales of the Black Freighter sort of bridge, and provided important background on the characters. They're quite brilliant.
Basically, without giving too much away: If you like people punching one another, mysteries, car chases, and giant ants, you have to check out Dames in the Atomic Age. If the print copy looks half as good as the PDF did, I'm going to buy extra copies to give out as presents. (Same with Anathema, too.) Print copies were available for the first time at Wondercon this past weekend. You can also purchase it online at Art of Fiction.Anathema #1 is available in print from Rachel directly, or there will be some available at C2E2 through IC Geeks (table 719). If you enjoy dark horror tales, lesbians, demons, witches, or werewolves, I'd advise you to check this one out as soon as possible. This book is sort of like if Edgar Allen Poe were a riotgrrl.
I highly recommend buying all three books, not only because you should be supporting creator-owned comics, but because if you enjoy sci-fi, drama, and the supernatural, these are three very different comics that all transcend the "b-movie horror" genre.]]>
The Girl Who Was on Fire: A Hunger Games Essay Compilationtag:www.geektress.com,2012://1.7702012-02-28T19:26:31Z2013-01-01T17:35:23Z Warning: This Way Lie Spoilers It's no secret that I love Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy. I've read the books three times now, the last time so I could write a fancy learning, academic-like paper. I am so pumped...Careyhttp://www.facebook.com/gypsycab79Warning: This Way Lie Spoilers
It's no secret that I love Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy. I've read the books three times now, the last time so I could write a fancy learning, academic-like paper. I am so pumped for the movie. It comes out the weekend before my birthday so I'm going to go see it. Maybe twice. And while I'm happy with the finality of Mockingjay - seriously, not every series or movie franchise or television show has to go on forever and ever until it's too awful to continue - I am kind of sad that the adventures of Katniss, Gale, and Peeta are pretty much over.
So, when offered the chance to review the movie tie-in version of The Girl Who Was on Fire, a compliation of essays on The Hunger Games trilogy by other YA authors edited by Leah Wilson, there wasn't much arm twisting involved. FYI, there is an edition of this book in stores currently, but this is a review of the movie tie-in edition with three additional essays.
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I have to admit that I was a little hesitant at first. I'm still coming down from the high of writing my first smarty pants academic paper in almost six years, on the very subject I was about to review. I didn't know what to expect. But I was delighted by the variey of essays with Wilson's volume - they ranged from fun pieces on the importance of Cinna's fashion sense and Gale's persona as a knight/cowboy/badass - to very serious and slightly alarming examinations of Game Theory and PTSD within the trilogy.
Two essays that especially stood out were "Team Katniss" by Jennifer Lynn Barnes and "Your Heart is a Weapon the Size of Your Fist" by Mary Borsellino. Both essays focus on Katniss as a person as opposed to Katniss the girl in a love triangle, or Katniss the government tool. Katniss Everdeen is one of the strongest, smartest ladies of YA lit., and she deserves to be seen as such. She's also a complexly emotional individual when she's able to let her guard down (which really is almost never, but we get glimpses throughout of who Katniss might have been in a more compassionate world).
Another essay I can't help but bring up is "Did the Third Book Suck?" by Brent Hartinger (one of the essays only in the movie tie-in edition). Brenda and I have wildly varying opinions on Mockingjay, and it seems that anyone who has read it either loves it or hates it. I adore it. [I merely tolerate it. -Ed.] I love how different and honest it is. I love that Katniss' life doesn't wrap up like a neat little present. And truthfully, I love that she picked Peeta. While I'm Team Katniss first, I'm Team Peeta second.
To me, Gale was never a realistic option. I have to think back to Geektress' Hunger Games podcast, where awesome guest Adele Walsh referred to Peeta as a doucheboat: Half dreamboat, half douche. I'm not entirely on board with the douche part... but damn, can you imagine that declaration of love bombshell dropping on you? In a situation like The Hunger Games? Hartinger comes to the conclusion that Collins is worth admiring for taking a risk by writing a vastly different book with Mockingjay. However, he feels like her efforts fell flat. In the context of his essay, that seems fair.
But back to The Girl Who Was on Fire. If you enjoyed The Hunger Games trilogy as much as I did (and I enjoyed it a lot), this book is worth picking up. Every author's voice is casual enough to speak to the readers instead of at them. Many of the essays are opinion oriented, but even the ones supported by sciological and scientific fact are engaging and accessible. At no point did I feel any author was dumbing down the series or writing over my head. As a whole The Girl Who Was on Fire is a pretty solid meditation on a wonderful series that is ripe for analysis.
At the time of this review, The Girl Who Was on Fire - movie tie-in edition is avalable at your local bookstore and online.]]>
My son Hunter and I had been anticipating the Christmas special since Angels in Manhattan. He was very upset about the Ponds dying, inconsolable for days.
(Spoilers if you have not seen the episode yet!)]]>
Hunter: It was awesome! What I have to say is, it was epic and cool. The snowmen were creepy. Not sure if I like Clara/Oswin yet. I liked the new Tardis, there were two screens and it matched the Doctor's Scrooge-like personality in this episode. I am looking forward to the new cybermen update, and to see how the new companion does. The new opening was good, it included time travel and space travel. The old opening had too much time travel. The classic episodes had the Doctor's face, which was cool, and now we have the face again.]]>
Hey everyone! If you haven't been to our Tumblr yet, we're running a contest for a new indie comedy called For A Good Time Call. You can check out the specifics right here.
The movie is in theaters starting August 31st, and our contest runs until August 29th. If you're on Tumblr, get over there and reblog! You could win a bunch of cool movie-related stuff (pictured above.)
And check out the movie trailer if you’re interested in seeing more! (It's Red Band, so NSFW.)]]>
Last night on Animal Planet, they re-ran a faux documentary program called Mermaid: The Body Found. It was in a similar vein as Trollhunter (though, nowhere near as well-produced,) and from what I gather, every time Animal Planet airs this show, it generates quite a bit of confusion.
It's made to look like it's really one of those "found footage" "alien autopsy" sort of programs that explores the mysteries of mermaids. It's also supposed to inform people of actual technologies, as well. Still, there is some question why it was on a "real channel" like Animal Planet, a channel that is owned by the same company that owns Discovery Channel, which airs -- among other things -- a reality show about auctioneers (to better compete with the HISTORY Channel and their successful show about PAWN SHOPS.)
Don't get me wrong, I love Deadliest Catch, but it's not exactly educational programming, which doesn't happen all the time anymore on cable networks like Discovery. Can you even remember what TLC was supposed to stand for? Just a hint, it's not "Kitchen Boss Marathons." So when Chew's Rob Guillory was bewildered last night by a re-airing of Mermaid: Body Found, he did some looking and came up with possibly the greatest representation of awful comments currently on the interwebs.]]>
On Saturday morning, I awoke at 6 am and then decided that was too damned early to be awake on a Saturday. So I decided to stay in bed as long as possible, which meant reading Twitter and, eventually, going through my nightstand looking for those issues of Casanova I bought a while back but never read.
What I stumbled upon was a bag of vintage comics I'd purchased probably two years ago at an antique store for $4 apiece. Included was Lois Lane #129, and Supergirl #2, both with amazing covers. Basically the recipe to get me to buy a silver or golden age comic is to have an amazing cover (the ones that are "cliffhangers" are my favorite) and to be less than $5. (Because I am not actually a collector, just cheap.)
The end result is me, lying in bed and tweeting my reactions, which I'll recap here, because not only am I cheap, I'm lazy.]]>
Repairman Jack doesn't fix things. He fixes situations. When the police have failed or are not an option, when a person has no one else to turn to, there is always Repairman Jack. For a hefty fee, Jack will beat up your abusive husband, take back compromising documents that have found their way into the wrong hands, or stab a pedophile right in the junk.
He flies way under the legal radar, taking pains to make himself as invisible as possible. He doesn't have a single license, social security number, or credit card in his own name. He doesn't work for free, and he only works for just causes. He doesn't kill people unless he has to.
Jack is like the Punisher, but with a narrower scope of anger and hatred. He won't shoot you in the face for running a red light, but piss him off, and your unmaimed days are probably numbered.
So yeah, this is way cool. The Punisher is one of my favorite comic book characters. I find the idea of street justice really appealing. I can't even tell you how many times I've felt the need to punch people in the mouth for saying something ignorant, or how often I think about lying to the liars and cheating the cheaters.
What takes Jack from cool to awesome is the supernatural element running throughout the series. When we first meet Jack in The Tomb, he's been hired for two jobs: first, find and return a stolen necklace, and second, find an old lady who just up and vanished. Of course these two fix-it jobs end up being related, ending in a showdown with evil incarnate. Jack is forever marked by the experience - figuratively and literally. He continues to take fix-it jobs, but continuously runs into various agents of evil in each book, known in the series as the Otherness. Repairman Jack is what would happen if the Punisher wandered into the land of Mulder and Scully.
However, Repairman Jack was originally intended as a one off character. While The Tomb is the first Repairman Jack book, it's the second book in Wilson's Adversary Cycle. I actually don't have a whole lot to say about the Adversary Cycle because I haven't yet read the first book - The Keep. My plan is to finish all 15 Repairman Jack books and then go back and start the Adversary Cycle. From what I understand, this doesn't hurt the reading experience.
Due to a bunch of scheduling snafus, Carey was the only Geektress that was able to make it to our annual Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo meetup this year. But she carried on like a champ and did a bunch of picture taking and blogging for us. Unfortunately, the site was suffering its malware malady and so she posted her roundup on her personal blog. So, after the jump, we have some of the highlights. ]]>
FRIDAY
[My] boss and I went over to the American Library Association's booth at C2E2, which was being run by a remarkable Effie Trinket cosplayer. She had a different outfit for every day of the con and sometimes changed mid-day.
SUNDAY
Sunday was Kids' Day at C2E2 so there were tons of adorable children and babies all dressed up. I don't have any pictures of them because I didn't want to be that creepy weirdo that was all, "Can I take a picture of your kids?" I saw a lot of Adventure Time cosplay and yelled, "What time is it?!" every chance I could. Some of them weren't very enthusiastic about answering me, but if you're going to cosplay Jake or Finn, you have to be prepared to get yelled at a lot. I yelled "What time is it?" at a Princess Bubblegum while in the bathroom and she loudly and happily answered me from three stalls over.
Despite my exhaustion, I experienced my other con highlight on Sunday - meeting Cliff Chiang. I am in love with the Wonder Woman relaunch and especially in love with Chiang's work. We talked a little and I told him how much I like his work on Wonder Woman. I said that my WW favorite panel was the one in issue #1 where Wonder Woman straight up headbutts a centaur in the face. Apparently, that was Brian Azzarello's idea, as he's a huge fan of wrestling. Chiang's commission list was full, and he didn't have any prints of the centaur headbutt, but I did buy a print of Wonder Woman swinging a bloody battle axe in a field of fallen arrows. I can't wait to get that framed and use it as inspiration in my own violent writing.
I also bought a Dex Starr print from artist Sara Richard. Not only was it beautiful and inexepensive, but $5 from every sale of that particular print was going to the Humane Society. Rock on, Sara Richard.
You can read the whole three part recap over at Carey's blogspot!]]>
I know I'm slow on the uptake with book reviews. I have so many that I try to read that I don't usually get to new ones until they've been out for a few months. Unless of course publishers send me ARCs (hint, hint - I need more of these!). I finally got around to finishing David Anthony Durham's Acacia trilogy this week. The final book, The Sacred Band, came out late in 2011. The trilogy as a whole was a rare, satisfying read. I like to compare books to food. Books are food for the brain, and like food for the stomach, they can taste great (or awful), fill you up (or leave you starving), and nourish you (or give you gut rot and cavities). Durham's trilogy manages to do all three. ]]>
The Acacia trilogy is epic in scope. We travel through many years and get to know a good number of characters from a variety of different nations. Many characters come full circle from being children in the first book to having kids of their own by the end. This circle is at the heart of the trilogy. Most actions, violent or benevolent, are driven by the love parents have for their children. The first book, Acacia, ushers readers onto the isle of Acacia and into the privileged lives of the four royal children - Aliver, Corinn, Mena, and Dariel. Their world falls apart when their father, King Leodan, is assassinated. Before he dies, Leodan arranges for his children to be taken to different ends of the earth, to be raised away from the chaos of a nation under attack. Only Aliver ends up living the life his father intended for him, but each child grows and lives through their days with their father's memory never far away.
It's difficult to write about these books without spoiling them, but Durham deftly twists the ending of Acacia in a way that would make George RR Martin proud. In fact, it's easy to compare the two authors, but only to an extent. While the world of Acacia can be harsh, it is also beautiful. Where Martin likes to dwell in the slime and stink of Westeros, Durham rises above that, while letting his readers know that the slime and stink of Acacia still exists. In fact, the slime and stink of Acacia are what keeps the nation running.
When I was in my teens and early 20s, I lived for The X-Files. I had the hots for both Mulder and Scully. And also Krycek, occasionally Skinner, and the cute bearded Lone Gunman. Shoot, I wanted to have Chris Carter's babies. I watched Millenium when that came on, even though it was only peripherally related to The X-Files. I even watched The Lone Gunmen, and it made me weep, but I watched it. I saw the movie on opening night - twice. And in my mind, there is only one movie - I like to think I only imagained the second one in a horrible nightmare.]]>
I had every bit of X-Files merchandise that came out - the books, the VHS tapes, a t-shirt for every day of the week, all of the action figures (even the one that came with a dead body in a bodybag), a clock, and every Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide that featured my beloved FBI agents. I begged my mom to tape all the episodes for me when FX ran the whole series in order, even "Home," the episode with the muderous inbred brothers that couldn't be aired before 11pm after its initial air date.
I fought with my boyfriend at the time because he hated Mulder and Scully, and wonder now how I ever could have dated anyone so dumb. I went to an X-Files convention in New York City in 1999 and met Nicholas Lea. I saw Gillian Anderson do a Q&A where she spoiled the season finale because she didn't realize the episode hadn't aired yet (it was the one when the X-Files office burned down). David Duchovny was in town filming Saturday Night Live that same weekend and I was torn between hating him for not coming to the con and desperately wanting to stalk his sexy ass. I was a complete junkie.
In the last couple of months, I've realized I never stopped being a junkie. I thought maybe my love for Lost had superceded my love for Mulder and Scully. Yes, Lost and I had a hot and heavy relationship, but that show was a total tease. The X-Files and I loved each other, and in the end we just went seperate ways. The second movie was like realizing my beloved ex-show had gotten fat and ugly in our time apart. But some friends and I have been revisitng the good times of the first season on Thursday nights and I now know there will always be a place in my heart for the X.
Some of these first season episodes are still just as shockingly good now as they were almost 20 years ago. The two parter, "Squeeze" and "Tooms" featuring Doug Hutchison, former Lost actor and current babysitter/husband of Courtney Stodden, scared the hell out of me when I was a teenager. (I almost wrote shit, but the opposite happened - I was so scared to use the toilet after watching those episodes that I held my shit in for an unhealthy length of time.) [This is perhaps an overshare, Carey. I'll allow it, because it'll annoy Laura. -Ed.] Hutchison played Eugene Victor Tooms, this weird dude who could elongate his body and sneak through the tiniest of entries (including toilets) to eat peoples' livers.
"Eve" is also in season one. Aside from being the inspiration behind a hideous band name, this episode was also terrifying. Twin girls living 3,000 miles apart exsanguinate their fathers and try to kill Mulder and Scully with digitallis poison. We find out that the girls were part of a genetic experiment featuring extra chromosomes that caused heightened sociopathy and violence.
Both of these episodes were monster of the week type shows, which essentially what The X-Files was for the first season. Season one barely touches on the overarching mythology of the show, which in fact doesn't come into play until Gillian Anderson gets pregnant and Chris Carter had to figure out what to do with her. Hence her abduction and absence from many episodes of season two.
The third episode that really stands out in season one is "Beyond the Sea." While this isn't a mythology episode, it is one of the most significant episodes in the entire series in terms of defining Mulder and Scully as individuals and as a team. In this episode, Scully's father dies and she is desperate to believe that his ghost has contacted her. On the heels of Col. Scully's death, death row inmate Luthor Lee Boggs has requested to speak to Mulder in regard to the recent kidnapping and murder of a young couple. Boggs had been to death row once before but was granted a reprieve while sitting in the electric chair. Because of this experience, Boggs claims he can now channel the spirits of the dead. Scully wants more than anything to talk to her father through Boggs, but the eternal skeptic in her prevails by the end of the episode. "Beyond the Sea" is the basis for the Mulder/Scully belief conflict that pervades throughout the series. In this episode, we see that just because Scully practises the logic of hard science, she yearns for something more. Mulder knows this, which is why he never gives up on her.
I'm falling in love with this show all over again. The first season has its problems - real money isn't being spent on the show yet and Mark Snow is still using some stock creepy music. Scully looks a little frumpy, Mulder's hair is huge, and the cell phones are even more huge. But the little things that look funny now are charming and the outdated computers, landlines, and bepers don't take away from the story. In fact, it's kind of fun to remember what life was like in the mid 90s. The stories are just as good. If you loved The X-Files back in the day, it's worth a rewatch. Just try your best to put Californication out of your mind. Yeah, Mulder was a total perv with a ginormous porn collection and a death prediction of autoerotic asphyxiation, but his heart belonged to Scully. And my heart belongs to them, forever and ever.]]>
It was a pretty big week for comics last week. Brian K Vaughn's Saga finally dropped (I didn't read it), and another much-anticipated book, Womanthology, showed up in comic stores (I sort of read it, but I'm in it, so I mostly just obsessed over my mistakes.) (I'm on page 194, go look it up.)
However, three much more exciting (to me, anyway) stories ended up on my digital (and actual) doorstep this week. I didn't think I could top the thrill of seeing my own work in print, but the following three comics were so well done, they have confirmed my choice to only read creator-owned / indie comics from here on out.]]>
Queen Crab, and Rachel Deering's Anathema. That was what seemed like forever ago. Actually getting to read what I'd been receiving email updates about for months, and not being disappointed, was kind of surprising.
Queen Crab ended up being a hardcover book released by Image Comics, and is available in comic book shops right now. Artiz Eiguren provides the art, and it's beautifully understated for a story about a girl with crab claws for hands. I felt most of the book downplayed the entire crustacean-mutation angle in favor of a study of the main character, Ginger.
Warning: This Way Lie Spoilers
It's no secret that I love Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy. I've read the books three times now, the last time so I could write a fancy learning, academic-like paper. I am so pumped for the movie. It comes out the weekend before my birthday so I'm going to go see it. Maybe twice. And while I'm happy with the finality of Mockingjay - seriously, not every series or movie franchise or television show has to go on forever and ever until it's too awful to continue - I am kind of sad that the adventures of Katniss, Gale, and Peeta are pretty much over.
So, when offered the chance to review the movie tie-in version of The Girl Who Was on Fire, a compliation of essays on The Hunger Games trilogy by other YA authors edited by Leah Wilson, there wasn't much arm twisting involved. FYI, there is an edition of this book in stores currently, but this is a review of the movie tie-in edition with three additional essays.
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