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Archive for the ‘Entertainment’ Category

What Lies Beyond

Posted in Entertainment, Likes, Science!, tagged , , , , , , , on December 2, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Erik Wernquist’s lovely short film “Wanderers” is making the rounds online, and deservedly so. The piece uses dramatic visualizations of our solar system and is narrated with audio excerpts from Carl Sagan’s book Pale Blue Dot. If you have four minutes and a yen for optimistic futurism, let this film help you imagine humanity’s future on the open road, “out there.” And it’s always good to hear Carl Sagan.

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Tom Magliozzi, 1937-2014

Posted in Entertainment, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Tom Magliozzi, Popular Co-Host Of NPR’s ‘Car Talk,’ Dies At 77

This is sad. I didn’t know him personally, of course, but living in Cambridge (not far from their garage) as long as I did, listening to NPR as much as I did, and graduating from the same school as Tom and Ray, I felt a connection. Tom was the perfect foil to Ray’s banter and vice versa, and not only knew cars but also how to entertain. And that laugh! So contagious. It made me smile through the challenges of grad school, and makes me smile still.

The NPR story linked above has a sample of the show, and of course more Car Talk audio, car-related discussions and The Quotable Tom Magliozzi are archived by the good folks over at CarTalk.com. If you have a few more minutes, MIT also has video of Tom and Ray’s 1999 commencement speech.

Never let the facts stand in the way of a good answer.

If that’s not the essence of good storytelling, well. He will be missed!

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Wonder Woman

Posted in Entertainment, Likes, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on October 17, 2014| Leave a Comment »

A Wonder Woman movie is finally really actually happening. This article at Tor.com lays out what we know (not much) and how this movie fits with the WB film slate.

Few details are available other than a 2017 release date, so let me leave you with Jill Lepore’s New Yorker piece on everyone’s favorite lasso-toting amazon and this fascinating Smithsonian article on The Surprising Origins of Wonder Woman.

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Shadow Unit 1: Free

Posted in Entertainment, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 24, 2014| Leave a Comment »

This has been true for a while but Shadow Unit 1 is available to download for free:

Shadow Unit is a contemporary science fiction series about a group of FBI agents struggling to protect humanity from the worst monsters imaginable. Except some of our heroes may be on the road to becoming monsters themselves….

Get started on this reader-funded series with writing by Emma Bull, Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette, and Will Shetterly for nothing, nada, zip, tipota!

Kindle version at Amazon: Shadow Unit 1. Epub, pdf, and other formats at Smashwords: Shadow Unit 1.

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Cake and Hand Grenades

Posted in Entertainment, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 27, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Jason Sheehan over at NPR has a very nice review of John Scalzi’s Lock In today. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on a copy:)

Lock In is a cop story first… There is blood, a body, a couch pushed out a hotel room window from a high floor… Once he’s gotten past the tricky part of building a near-future world and putting a dead body in it without getting bogged down in the details of either, the rest is all cake and hand grenades.

Lock In (Lock In, #1) by John Scalzi | Goodreads

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Crap Day? No Problem!

Posted in Entertainment, Likes, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 12, 2014| 1 Comment »

So there I was fighting with some work stuff and fixing to have a perfectly crappy afternoon when a little lightbulb went off over my head, just like in the cartoons. A few clicks later and all was once again right with the world. Go ahead try it, bet it will work for you too:)

Yeah, I saw Guardians of the Galaxy. If you haven’t, it’s a damn fine movie. Damn fine!

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Quick Week

Posted in Entertainment, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 2, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Canada Day was July 1st and American Independence Day is July 4th, neatly bookending the week with parties and fireworks and associated festivities. Yay. That said, work must be done and so I am a wee bit crunched for time. In lieu of a long essay on the state of the world and/or gracing you with my recipe for meringue, say, allow me to direct you to “The New Provisions,” a story by Adam-Troy Castro fresh out at Lightspeed.

It’s not true, but it’s not all false, either. Enjoy!

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Building Better Strong Female Characters

Posted in Entertainment, Likes, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 19, 2014| Leave a Comment »

We’re losing all our Strong Female Characters to Trinity Syndrome

This excellent piece by Tasha Robinson sums up a lot of the problems mainstream storytelling has with “Strong Female Characters.”

For the ordinary dude to be triumphant, the Strong Female Character has to entirely disappear into Subservient Trophy Character mode. This is Trinity Syndrome à la The Matrix: the hugely capable woman who never once becomes as independent, significant, and exciting as she is in her introductory scene.

If you are interested in learning how not to bury your SFC’s light under a bushel, I recommend this article. It highlights on-point questions creatives should ask themselves, like:

03. Could your Strong Female Character be seamlessly replaced with a floor lamp with some useful information written on it to help a male hero?

:p

In many instances, what starts out as an interesting character is hobbled in order to provide the male hero with whatever thing he needs (knowledge, motivation, etc.) to make it to the finish line. There are exceptions, of course, and I’m pleased to say that Emily Blunt’s character in Edge of Tomorrow was one such.

So maybe all the questions can boil down to this: Looking at a so-called Strong Female Character, would you—the writer, the director, the actor, the viewer—want to be her?

Like Tasha Robinson, I loved Cate Blanchett’s character in How to Train Your Dragon 2 and was as disappointed when the role for this supremely kick-ass woman who was willing to live in exile for twenty years to uphold her principles just sort of… fizzled out. I hope to see more from her in a third installment. In fact, I hope to see more Strong Female Characters across the board.

Who knows, one day we might even just call them, oh, I don’t know, “Female Characters.”

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Edge of Tomorrow

Posted in Entertainment, Likes, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on June 8, 2014| 1 Comment »

So, remember when I had a hard time finding a movie theatre showing Edge of Tomorrow in 2D? I know, that was, like, hours ago, you may have forgotten. I bring it up now to say that I did find a theatre, and I did go see the film, and it was Totally Worth It, people! No spoilers, but the acting and directing and editing and… well, just about everything was top notch. Really, really enjoyed it.

Definitely recommended.

Now I’m off to find the book it’s based on, All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. Because speculative fiction well done is a delight.

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3-frickin-D

Posted in Entertainment, tagged , , , , , , , , , on June 6, 2014| 1 Comment »

Srsly, Ottawa movie theaters, why can’t I see Edge of Tomorrow in anything other than 3-frickin-D this weekend? Oh look, here’s an article about how the gross for this movie might be underwhelming. Could it have anything to do with the fact that some of us can’t see it without wearing glasses that make us want to lose our lunch?

Hang on a sec, after much searching I have found one theatre (hey there little guy!) that is showing this movie in 2D. One. Guess which theatre is getting my money? Because hey, I want to see Edge of Tomorrow. 🙂

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