| Tuesday's dead |
[29 May 2012|10:13am] |
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 satisfied |
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We got in late last night from Balticon, which was most excellent. I sold a metric butt-ton of copies of the Precinct books -- not just the newly released Goblin Precinct, but also lotsa copies of Dragon Precinct and Unicorn Precinct. In particular, the Eternal Launch went phenomenally well, with lots of people showing up to look at all the spiffy new books from Dark Quest. Wrenn also had a great time doing tech and seeing people.
The launch party really was a highlight -- we had five-minute readings by the various authors, we had music by Jonah Knight and SJ Tucker, as well as some lovely harp music, and a ton of food that got consumed quite rapidly. (Seriously, it was like the con was populated by vultures....) Kudos to party organizer Danielle Ackley-McPhail and all the folks who brought food (including me and Wrenn....).
In addition, I had a great time hanging out with various podcasting/audio drama folks, including getting to meet more of the voices behind HG World, including M. Sieiro Garcia, Laura Nicole, Bryan Lincoln, and Veronica Giguere, and getting to hang with them, as well as the HGW people I already knew -- Jay Smith (and his lovely wife Pam) and the Stokes/Rinas family -- was a treat and a half. I also had tremendous fun with fellow Dark Quest folks Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Mike McPhail, Christine Norris, Bernie Mojzes, James Daniel Ross (and his lovely wife Jennifer), KT Pinto, Patrick Thomas, C.J. Henderson, Jess Novasteras (and her nifty husband Jamie), and Elektra Hammond (and her nifty husband Michael), as well as any others I might have missed. Plus there was the World family, Zan, Renee & Day, Monica V., Myke, Ron & Robin, Ian & Joy, Mary S., the Kraus family, and others I know I've forgotten who should forgive a tired writer for not remembering.
And, most of all, we had a great time with our roommates, Neal Levin & Tina Randleman, who remain made of awesomesauce.
The panels were good, too, ranging from a rather ridiculous late-night panel on animals in SF/F (which the panelists, including me, were all wondering what we were doing on it), to the latest in a stellar series of Eye of Argon readings, to a great dynamic voice acting demo, to a really strong talk on editing anthologies. Plus I got to read from Leverage: The Zoo Job and do some networking.
The convention and the hotel did their best to spoil the weekend with assorted fuckups. The only ones that really affected me were 1) the room not being ready when Tina & Neal arrived, so they gave us a room that was ready, which was sufficiently far from the main part of the hotel as to almost be in the next county, and 2) programming putting the author signings by the dealer room, which makes sense on the face of it, but any autographings that occurred during hours when the dealer room was closed were disasters, because there was absolutely no foot traffic to that table if the dealer room was shut. Bad planning, guys.
Now I'm off to do the TNG Rewatch, as we kick off the fifth season, then it's Leverage, Leverage, Leverage......
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| Strawberry report |
[29 May 2012|09:42am] |
About 85% of a quart.
Overcast today, so tomorrow may not be as bountiful.
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| Morning vid: Don't Be Fooled by Ryuki |
[29 May 2012|12:43pm] |
Found the guy via music shows where this song is rotated and fell in love with it. Ryuki, apparently, was a vocalist of the indie band Papain (that seems to not exist anymore).
Ryuki - Don't Be Fooled (착각하지마) live
Back-up link. DL.
     
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| though banished, yet a trueborn Englishman |
[29 May 2012|01:04am] |
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mood |
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 impressed |
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YOU GUYS.
I have been really bad at actually watching the Globe to Globe productions after having a screaming fit of glee about them on lj, because they always seem to vanish before I have a chance -- but I knew I didn't want to miss Ashtar Theatre's production of Richard II in Palestinian Arabic: I wouldn't have anyway, but it even got a glowing review from non-Richard-fan ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) kerrypolka, so I knew it was going to be mindblowing. And guess what: IT TOTALLY WAS. Seriously GO WATCH IT ASAP -- it is available here for a few more days (I am planning to watch again on Wednesday for a patented Thinky Shakespeare Post), and it's really good even just taped for internet viewing; I can only imagine how good it must have been in person. Sami Metwasi is one of the best Richards I've ever seen (and while I'm less picky about productions than one might think, that is high praise coming from me ;) )
The one slight caveat is that if you don't speak Arabic (I don't, myself) and don't know the play going in it might be a bit tough to follow -- there are subtitles, but they are sporadic and don't always seem to be quite the right bits of the text. But if you do speak Arabic and/or are familiar with Richard II (and if you're not, you could get familiar with it, an option I always recommend) then definitely go watch this production. Because it is awesome.
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| speak of the devil |
[28 May 2012|10:11pm] |
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 irate |
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I try not to take mainstream media too seriously but I finally got around to watching Knocked Up and wow, did it leave a bad taste in my mouth.
- Hot girl puts on her beer goggles and takes schlumpy guy home from a bar. Schlumpy guy "misunderstands" a comment and has sex with her sans condom. SKETCHY.
- Hot girl gets pregnant and lies about it at work. Because, you know, that is a perfectly reasonable thing to try. No one is going to notice you puking your guts out and then expanding in the middle.
- Hot girl's sister is OMG such a nagging shrew! She thinks her husband might be cheating on her because he keeps odd hours and lies about his whereabouts, so she *gasp* follows him one night. But it's all okay, he was just sneaking off to meet the guys for fantasy baseball. Aww. He just needs some time to himself, darn it! Ladies, take heed: you have to let your husband be as dishonest and selfish as he likes so long as he isn't banging some other chick on the side.
- Schlumpy guy is an incompetent man-child. He spends his days smoking pot and making dick jokes with his equally annoying and prospectless friends. He isn't even good in bed. And yet, hot girl falls in love with him because.... because.... honestly, beats the fuck out of me why. Because he made puppy dog eyes at her a lot? Because he really really likes her? Because he finally got off his ass and read a few chapters out of the pregnancy and childcare books he bought and then stashed in a cabinet for months? I got nothing. Gentlemen, take heed: if you take a few small steps towards being a barely competent human being, you can land a woman who is way out of your league.
It's not a comedy, it's a horror movie.
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| Links Roundup for 28 May 2012 |
[28 May 2012|01:28pm] |
Here's a roundup of feel-good fandom stories that might be of interest to fans:
- A variety of news outlets covered celebrations of Star Wars Day on May 4. Among them was ESPN, which posted examples of jock and nerd crossovers and a write-up of Star Wars nights at ballparks featuring some athletes who believe in The Force.
- Another fannish event in May was Comic Book Day and some fans used the occasion for an impromptu wedding at their comic book store. "They said as soon as they met, they found out about each other's geeky interests. 'Pretty much I was like look, I'm a big dork, I like Harry Potter, I like Lord of the Rings, I like all of this stuff and he was like, ‘I like that' and gave me the thumbs up,' [bride Donnita Johnson] said. The wedding was complete with a Princess Leia bridesmaid, a Spiderman best man and Batman and Wonder Woman wedding rings. The pair dressed up in Batman and Wonder Woman attire for the ceremony. They said life is about having fun and expressing who you are and the things you love."
- Certainly one aspect of fandom is its enduring nature, as reflected in the story of 104-year-old Spurs fan Theresa Sanchez who, after 40 years, finally attended a game in person. Also heartwarming was the story of the father and son Captain American fans who ended up attending the premiere of The Avengers. "Captain Kevin Camarata wanted to return from Afghanistan in time for his son's birthday. He missed it by a few days, but made it up to him by sticking to the original plan: dressing as the Avengers character his son holds most dear." When their reunion video went viral, Disney offered an invitation to them to walk the red carpet.
- Blogger Noah Brand discusses drawerfic, writing "I find incredibly esoteric and specialized porn to be one of the most life-affirming things in the world...every time I learn a new word like 'boytaur' or 'OT3' or 'docking' or 'unbirth'...all these things bring me a genuine and unironic joy." Such writing and self-expression is something that can never be co-opted or commercialized: "Every one of those weird kinks is a shout of human individuality in a world that wants to reduce us down to buying patterns and demographic trends. 'I am alive!' they cry. 'I am not an emerging new style, I am not a market segment, I am not co-optable.'" Brand argues that people who have access to current technologies are more fortunate than any other generation in history because they have the tools to make themselves understood. "We use those tools to keep Community on the air, and we also use them to create animated GIFs of Jessica Rabbit with a huge dick. If either of those things strikes you as a strange use of time and technology, that’s okay: it’s not for you. And that’s the point."
If you are part of The Avengers or Star Wars fandoms, or have your own feel-good fandom stories, why not contribute them to Fanlore? Additions are welcome from all fans.
We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup — on transformativeworks.org, LJ, or DW — or give @OTW_News a shoutout on Twitter. Links are welcome in all languages!
Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.
Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.
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| A truly nifty competition |
[28 May 2012|03:59pm] |
A fifteen minute video. Seven people, ranging in age from 10 to 75, go into an MRI, and have five minutes to love as hard as they can. The winner is whomever shows the most activity in the parts of the brain associated with love.
Some spoiler-riffic discussion after the cut. Behind the cut, I'll summarize, if you don't want to watch a fifteen-minute video.
( Read more... )
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