As is probably very apparent, my blogging time has been next-to-nonexistent lately. Taking care of a new baby, going back to work, and having my husband finishing up his second-to-last semester of grad school has taken up most of my time, energy, and attention. All good things, of course. But I do miss writing (and this time, it's purely for myself. I don't have to pretend what my opinion is in order to make someone else look good. I can be completely honest in my thoughts again. I'd almost forgotten what that felt like).
What follows is a list of fandom-related things that I've read/seen/listened to/watched and want to comment on. They are in no particular order, just whatever order I remember them.
Once Upon a Time - Remember how I used to faithfully review each episode every week? Yeah... I've certainly fallen off the wagon there. And I can't fully blame my time constraints for this. There's just nothing about the show lately that makes me want to write about it. It's not fantastic, it's not a trainwreck. It's just kind of... meh. It's a retread of everything they did before - and better. This season has been one giant "We've gotta pull something together because, the network." There are some entertaining moments, but on the whole, it's nothing to write home about.
What the actual hell??
Oh, and Cinderella's evil stepmother is actually Rapunzel. Sigh... remember how I was pissed to the nth degree over "Peter Pan is Rumplestiltskin's father"? With this, I can barely muster up enough emotion to raise an eyebrow. I blame ABC for keeping this show running when the creators were happy to bow out gracefully last year.
Dune (1984) - Jared and I watched this last night. I've read the book, but not recently. And I must have seen the miniseries many years ago, because I did not remember anything from this movie. The movie looks beautiful. The sets, the costuming, the design, the art - even some of the effects look good. The first half of the movie is even plotted pretty well. But then the House of Scabby Gingers attacks and the storytelling kind of falls apart. I can't fault them too much for it, though. Adapting any book for a two-hour movie is a chore, and Dune is a complicated story even in book form. It strikes me as one that would be better served as a TV series. Watching this movie is like watching Harry Potter - you aren't there for the faithful adaptation or even the coherent storytelling. You're there for the pretty sets and costumes - the things you imagined when you were reading the book.
Still - there are worse ways to spend an evening.
Doctor Who - I have the most unpopularest opinions of unpopular opinions about the upcoming season: I'm not that excited for it. And it has nothing to do with the gender of the lead character (before any obnoxiously "woke" blowhard dipshit decides that's what my opinion is and rushes to close the clubhouse door on me. Like I need the internet to approve my fandom before I can watch this show. What are you going to do? Sneak into my house and steal my DVDs? Delete my Big Finish collection? Please).
Chris Chibnall has not engendered much confidence as far as his Doctor Who writing has gone. The only episode of his that I really liked was "The Power of Three." The rest were forgettable. Not bad, necessarily. Just... forgettable. Yes, I liked the first season of Broadchurch, but I'm probably never going to rewatch it. And I couldn't get into the second season, or even Gracepoint, so that was a bust for me.
Now, that's not to say I'm not going to give him and Jodie Whittaker a chance. I wasn't all that impressed with Moffat's final season - though he did have a strong finish. Peter Capaldi has been a fantastic Doctor, but much of the writing in his era has not served him well. A change-up is what Doctor Who needs right now. I just hope that the changes that Chibnall brings are what's needed to keep the show fresh.
And I'll explain what I mean by "keeping the show fresh." Just last week, I had occasion to pick up DWM 518 (the December 2017 issue, if I'm remembering correctly) from the library. I kind of just skipped around the magazine, looking for interesting things to read (or passing on the things that didn't hold my attention). I wasn't going to read the comic, having been unimpressed with previous DWM comics. But this time, I read through it. The comic, titled "Matildus," was absolutely brilliant. And I am going to thoroughly spoil it for you, so deal with it -
The Twelfth Doctor and Bill land on a planet with a giant and ancient library (not that Library, completely different one). The library is kept by an old alien woman named Matildus. She's stern and kind of prickly, but she helps the Doctor with some questions he has. Though her prickly nature does cause Bill to leave the library and go out into the city. Bill is subsequently caught by a gang of street kids who tell her that Matildus used to be a kind (still stern) woman who let them hang out in the library (as long as they read the books she recommended - that made me laugh). But now she's chased them off and become a totally different person. The kids think there's something nefarious going on because nobody's gone in or out of the library in months - Bill's the first person they've seen come or go.
Meanwhile, Matildus's "granddaughter" who's been helping her maintain the library isn't her granddaughter at all. It's an evil alien entity that's trying to take control of the library with all its information and knowledge. The entity has been trying to convince Matildus that she's too old and senile to be the head librarian, so she should sign control of the library to her granddaughter - except she doesn't have a granddaughter. The Doctor and Bill reveal the entity's evil plan and the entity flees. But Matildus realizes that she's been too absorbed by her work that she doesn't have anyone close to her. No family, friends, or even colleagues. She's pushed everyone away (even before the alien entity was messing with her mind). But then the kids come rushing in and insist that she has them. It's happy endings all around - these street kids have someone who cares about them, and Matildus has an adopted family to share her life with.
I loved this story - not just because it takes place in a library and that hits all my warm-fuzzies in the right places, but that it's something that everyone can relate to. Wanting a family, wanting to share your life with somebody, not wanting to be alone forever. And it's the Scrooge trope - a mean-spirited and closed-off person learns to love and let people into their life. Maybe it's the Christmas season (though this wasn't a Christmas-themed story), but that made me feel good.
That's what I've been missing from Doctor Who - stories that make me feel good. I don't need overly-sweet and soppy storytelling, but something wholesome and heartwarming would be nice for once. Lately, Who has felt entirely too preachy and heavy-handed and I'm sick of that. Whatever you may think of the world at large (and there are a lot of crappy things going on in the world, I will not dispute that) - I think we need something positive and uplifting. Besides, if you really believe that world events are too much to overcome and nothing good is ever going to happen (I wouldn't go that far, but some people would), wouldn't you want to try to bring something good to people? Something that we can all agree with? I'm tired of all this divisiveness and arguing. I want something that most of us can agree on. Doctor Who is capable of such storytelling - it's why I fell in love with the show in the first place. More "Vincent and the Doctor" and "Closing Time", less "Oxygen" and... whatever the hell that monk three-parter was. Please and thank you.
I'll give the show a chance - I hope I will be proven wrong and that my concerns are unfounded. I would love to come out of Series 11 and say that it was the greatest thing since two-slotted toasters. But I'm not terribly confident right now.
Oh, and the 13th Doctor's costume looks like she's a five-year-old doesn't know how to dress herself. Speaking of unpopular opinions... (good grief, people - you made this big stink about casting a woman to play the Doctor and the first thing you do is dress her so she doesn't even look like a woman?? WTH is wrong with you???)
Okay, that's enough of that. On with my list!
Gate - Jared and I found this anime on Hulu and we enjoyed it immensely (seriously - if you want to find new anime to watch, Hulu is a good place to find it. And, yes, I know about Crunchyroll. They have great stuff too).
The premise goes thusly: A medieval fantasy empire tries to invade modern-day Japan during a comic convention. Horses, swords, magic, the whole shebang. A guy named Itami on his way to the convention, but he also happens to be a reservist in the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. He helps get people out of harm's way and helps stop the invasion before it starts. It turns out there's a magical gate that's opened between these worlds and both the fantasy empire and modern governments want to establish diplomatic relations. The JSDF does send a team through the gate to establish an outpost in the "Special Region" - and because Itami was there during the initial attack, he get promoted to officer and he's one of the guys in charge (poor guy just wants to stay home and read comics). In the Special Region, Itami meets elves, wizards, princesses, even a demigoddess. Both cultures learn about each other and try to get along - though there are good guys and bad guys in both worlds.
The first half of this show was hilarious and charming. The second half is where most of the gritty conflict takes place, and it is no less entertaining. Definitely worth checking out.
The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter - This is the fourth book in the Riyria Chronicles by Michael J. Sullivan (I reviewed/gushed about his first series, the Riyria Revelations, here. The Riyria Chronicles is a prequel series dealing with Royce and Hadrian's earlier exploits). I'm currently listening to the audiobook and it is a treat - though I would expect no less from this series. There was a Kickstarter for it that just ended and I have to give the whole team big-time props for the way it was run. I haven't backed a whole lot of Kickstarters, so I don't know how this one compares with others. But every time there was a behind-the-scenes update, they made sure the backers knew what was going on. Even to the point of sending us relevant pieces of correspondence from Audible when it looked like the redeem codes for the audiobooks weren't going to work quite right (though I was able to get my audiobook from Audible without any problems, so I appreciate that even more).
I haven't gotten my limited edition hardcover copy of the book, but I don't think they've shipped yet. I'm sure once they do ship, I'll get it the way I expect to. This is a quality operation and, when you're running a business like this, a little praise is appreciated greatly. And they deserve it.
Oh, and the book is fantastic! Don't worry if you haven't read the first three yet, or even the first series - all of these are standalone enough that you can jump in wherever you like. But once you read one, you'll want to read them all. If you don't have time to read, the audiobooks are great too. The narrator does a lovely job.
Cozy Mysteries - Now that I'm back working at the library, I've been trying to expand my horizons (as it were) with different genres. Trying out things that I wouldn't normally read. And I think I've found something new that I love - cozy mysteries. I didn't think I would enjoy these, but here we are.
Cozy mysteries are light-hearted mysteries that usually deal with solving a murder, but I've run into a few that deal with theft and fraud. That juxtaposition shouldn't work, but it does. The stories usually revolve around a regular person - usually a woman - who gets thrust into an impossible situation and has to find out what's going on with her neighbor or co-worker or family member. A lot of cozies revolved around things like quilt shops, libraries, food, small boutiques. To start off with, I read Lemon Tart by Josi S. Kilpack - the first of the Sadie Hoffmiller Culinary Mysteries (all of the books in this series have desserts in the titles, plus there are a bunch of recipes in the story). That one was a lot of fun, though her neighborhood is beyond dysfunctional. I also read And Only to Deceive, the first in the Lady Emily Mysteries series by Tasha Alexander. This one's a historical mystery where Lady Emily suspects her late husband was dealing in art fraud and she tries to find out the truth. All the while, her mother badgers her about getting remarried because how could a young, rich widow not get remarried (though I have been spoiled on the fact that she does remarry eventually).
Cozy mysteries - give 'em a try.
Music - As I've mentioned on Facebook, Alex loves to listen to Queen. He falls asleep listening to all the Queen music I have on repeat on an iPod playlist I created after we figured this out. Consequently, my knowledge of the band and their music has increased considerably since Alex was born. I think my favorite song of theirs that I've discovered (few things can beat out "Bohemian Rhapsody" or "We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions" overall. Or "The Show Must Go On," for that matter) is "The Invisible Man." I'd never heard this song until I pulled up a YouTube playlist of Queen music and I thought the accompanying video was just a lot of fun -
Other notable tunes: Under Pressure, Radio Gaga, Innuendo, Somebody to Love, White Queen
I've tried slowly introducing Alex to other musical artists and while there are some that he seems to responds positively to ("Thunder Island" by Jay Ferguson caught his attention this morning), he always goes back to Queen.
Eh, there are worse things to have to listen to on infinite repeat. Especially where kids are concerned.
That's what I've got for now. I might think of other things later, but that's a good overview.
What follows is a list of fandom-related things that I've read/seen/listened to/watched and want to comment on. They are in no particular order, just whatever order I remember them.
Once Upon a Time - Remember how I used to faithfully review each episode every week? Yeah... I've certainly fallen off the wagon there. And I can't fully blame my time constraints for this. There's just nothing about the show lately that makes me want to write about it. It's not fantastic, it's not a trainwreck. It's just kind of... meh. It's a retread of everything they did before - and better. This season has been one giant "We've gotta pull something together because, the network." There are some entertaining moments, but on the whole, it's nothing to write home about.
 |
| Sigh... so much potential wasted. |
Honestly, this season has been an extended cut of Mean Girls with magic. Victoria Belfrey, Ivy, Mother Gothel - even Tiana and Jacinda to an extent. None of these characters resonate with me. Very few of them are even likable. Lucy's storyline was great, but they keep forgetting that she's around. Now they've knocked her out, as well as destroyed her belief in fairy tales and happy endings.
What the actual hell??
Oh, and Cinderella's evil stepmother is actually Rapunzel. Sigh... remember how I was pissed to the nth degree over "Peter Pan is Rumplestiltskin's father"? With this, I can barely muster up enough emotion to raise an eyebrow. I blame ABC for keeping this show running when the creators were happy to bow out gracefully last year.
Still - there are worse ways to spend an evening.
Doctor Who - I have the most unpopularest opinions of unpopular opinions about the upcoming season: I'm not that excited for it. And it has nothing to do with the gender of the lead character (before any obnoxiously "woke" blowhard dipshit decides that's what my opinion is and rushes to close the clubhouse door on me. Like I need the internet to approve my fandom before I can watch this show. What are you going to do? Sneak into my house and steal my DVDs? Delete my Big Finish collection? Please).
 |
| The Christmas special? I'm here for it! |
Now, that's not to say I'm not going to give him and Jodie Whittaker a chance. I wasn't all that impressed with Moffat's final season - though he did have a strong finish. Peter Capaldi has been a fantastic Doctor, but much of the writing in his era has not served him well. A change-up is what Doctor Who needs right now. I just hope that the changes that Chibnall brings are what's needed to keep the show fresh.
And I'll explain what I mean by "keeping the show fresh." Just last week, I had occasion to pick up DWM 518 (the December 2017 issue, if I'm remembering correctly) from the library. I kind of just skipped around the magazine, looking for interesting things to read (or passing on the things that didn't hold my attention). I wasn't going to read the comic, having been unimpressed with previous DWM comics. But this time, I read through it. The comic, titled "Matildus," was absolutely brilliant. And I am going to thoroughly spoil it for you, so deal with it -
The Twelfth Doctor and Bill land on a planet with a giant and ancient library (not that Library, completely different one). The library is kept by an old alien woman named Matildus. She's stern and kind of prickly, but she helps the Doctor with some questions he has. Though her prickly nature does cause Bill to leave the library and go out into the city. Bill is subsequently caught by a gang of street kids who tell her that Matildus used to be a kind (still stern) woman who let them hang out in the library (as long as they read the books she recommended - that made me laugh). But now she's chased them off and become a totally different person. The kids think there's something nefarious going on because nobody's gone in or out of the library in months - Bill's the first person they've seen come or go.
Meanwhile, Matildus's "granddaughter" who's been helping her maintain the library isn't her granddaughter at all. It's an evil alien entity that's trying to take control of the library with all its information and knowledge. The entity has been trying to convince Matildus that she's too old and senile to be the head librarian, so she should sign control of the library to her granddaughter - except she doesn't have a granddaughter. The Doctor and Bill reveal the entity's evil plan and the entity flees. But Matildus realizes that she's been too absorbed by her work that she doesn't have anyone close to her. No family, friends, or even colleagues. She's pushed everyone away (even before the alien entity was messing with her mind). But then the kids come rushing in and insist that she has them. It's happy endings all around - these street kids have someone who cares about them, and Matildus has an adopted family to share her life with.
I loved this story - not just because it takes place in a library and that hits all my warm-fuzzies in the right places, but that it's something that everyone can relate to. Wanting a family, wanting to share your life with somebody, not wanting to be alone forever. And it's the Scrooge trope - a mean-spirited and closed-off person learns to love and let people into their life. Maybe it's the Christmas season (though this wasn't a Christmas-themed story), but that made me feel good.
That's what I've been missing from Doctor Who - stories that make me feel good. I don't need overly-sweet and soppy storytelling, but something wholesome and heartwarming would be nice for once. Lately, Who has felt entirely too preachy and heavy-handed and I'm sick of that. Whatever you may think of the world at large (and there are a lot of crappy things going on in the world, I will not dispute that) - I think we need something positive and uplifting. Besides, if you really believe that world events are too much to overcome and nothing good is ever going to happen (I wouldn't go that far, but some people would), wouldn't you want to try to bring something good to people? Something that we can all agree with? I'm tired of all this divisiveness and arguing. I want something that most of us can agree on. Doctor Who is capable of such storytelling - it's why I fell in love with the show in the first place. More "Vincent and the Doctor" and "Closing Time", less "Oxygen" and... whatever the hell that monk three-parter was. Please and thank you.
I'll give the show a chance - I hope I will be proven wrong and that my concerns are unfounded. I would love to come out of Series 11 and say that it was the greatest thing since two-slotted toasters. But I'm not terribly confident right now.
Oh, and the 13th Doctor's costume looks like she's a five-year-old doesn't know how to dress herself. Speaking of unpopular opinions... (good grief, people - you made this big stink about casting a woman to play the Doctor and the first thing you do is dress her so she doesn't even look like a woman?? WTH is wrong with you???)
 |
| The coat is neat, though. |
The first half of this show was hilarious and charming. The second half is where most of the gritty conflict takes place, and it is no less entertaining. Definitely worth checking out.
I haven't gotten my limited edition hardcover copy of the book, but I don't think they've shipped yet. I'm sure once they do ship, I'll get it the way I expect to. This is a quality operation and, when you're running a business like this, a little praise is appreciated greatly. And they deserve it.
Oh, and the book is fantastic! Don't worry if you haven't read the first three yet, or even the first series - all of these are standalone enough that you can jump in wherever you like. But once you read one, you'll want to read them all. If you don't have time to read, the audiobooks are great too. The narrator does a lovely job.
Cozy mysteries are light-hearted mysteries that usually deal with solving a murder, but I've run into a few that deal with theft and fraud. That juxtaposition shouldn't work, but it does. The stories usually revolve around a regular person - usually a woman - who gets thrust into an impossible situation and has to find out what's going on with her neighbor or co-worker or family member. A lot of cozies revolved around things like quilt shops, libraries, food, small boutiques. To start off with, I read Lemon Tart by Josi S. Kilpack - the first of the Sadie Hoffmiller Culinary Mysteries (all of the books in this series have desserts in the titles, plus there are a bunch of recipes in the story). That one was a lot of fun, though her neighborhood is beyond dysfunctional. I also read And Only to Deceive, the first in the Lady Emily Mysteries series by Tasha Alexander. This one's a historical mystery where Lady Emily suspects her late husband was dealing in art fraud and she tries to find out the truth. All the while, her mother badgers her about getting remarried because how could a young, rich widow not get remarried (though I have been spoiled on the fact that she does remarry eventually).Cozy mysteries - give 'em a try.
Music - As I've mentioned on Facebook, Alex loves to listen to Queen. He falls asleep listening to all the Queen music I have on repeat on an iPod playlist I created after we figured this out. Consequently, my knowledge of the band and their music has increased considerably since Alex was born. I think my favorite song of theirs that I've discovered (few things can beat out "Bohemian Rhapsody" or "We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions" overall. Or "The Show Must Go On," for that matter) is "The Invisible Man." I'd never heard this song until I pulled up a YouTube playlist of Queen music and I thought the accompanying video was just a lot of fun -
Other notable tunes: Under Pressure, Radio Gaga, Innuendo, Somebody to Love, White Queen
I've tried slowly introducing Alex to other musical artists and while there are some that he seems to responds positively to ("Thunder Island" by Jay Ferguson caught his attention this morning), he always goes back to Queen.
Eh, there are worse things to have to listen to on infinite repeat. Especially where kids are concerned.
That's what I've got for now. I might think of other things later, but that's a good overview.
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