Multifandom geekout
The Very Quick Day Trip to London went well, save for the weather, which was abysmal, and I wouldn't have minded except that I had to spend considerable time outside. Otoh, I made a lot of British bookstores and DVD sellers richer as well. Among other things, I finally was able to aquire the second season of West Wing, which I have started to watch. Considering Ron Moore references WW a few times in the BSG podcast, I take it the idea of the season 2 opener wherein the immediate aftermath of Adama's shooting is cross cut with the Adama/Tigh flashbacks came from In the Shadow of Two Gunman? OMG, Leo McGarry is the more functional version of Tigh. Next? No, seriously, the flashbacks on how everyone came to work for Bartlett were great, and I think I finally see the Donna/Josh thing..
I also soothed my overseas Serenity waiting woes by buying the first issue of the comic Joss obligingly wrote to fill in the events between Objects in Space and the movie. So far, so neat. It was so good to "hear" everyone's voices again. Art-wise, there is a gender divide - the drawings of the men look like them, but alas the women look more like generic pretty women than Zoe, Kaylee, Inara and River respectively. My favourite snark of the issue belonged to Book and was his reply to a certain question of Mal's. I *heart* Book.
Speaking of comics: I also aquired the first issue of 1602: New World (not bad, but it'll take more good issues to convince me to change my "only Mike Carey should be allowed to write Neil Gaiman spin-offs" rule) and two trade collections of Fables. The later because londonkds, oyceter and kangeiko all liked it, so I put aside my Bill Willingham issues enough to buy them. The preliminary verdict: okay, I still think he ought to be punished somehow for what he did to Thessaly and should never be allowed to write her again, or any other Sandman character. But his own stuff is good. The fairy tale characters done the noir way gimmik works, and Bigby Wolf and Snow White are really entertaining twists on the hard boiled detective and the fast talking, tough dame respectively. Was also impressed that he didn't always go for the obvious, as with the entire Prince Charming versus Blue Beard confrontation. I'm a bit uncertain what the rules about the Fables are, because they aren't all fairy tale creatures. Pinnochio comes from a novel by Carlo Callodini. And in his grand remembrance speech, King Cole referenced Narnia and Aslan, also products of a whole series of novels. So can we expect hobbits any time soon? Put another way, this reminds me of Phantásien (aka Phantasia) in Michael Ende's Neverending Story, or indeed the Dreaming, where all fantasy creatures ever dreamed up coexist.
On Thursday, I saw Bride and Prejudice and by sheer coincidence the trailer for the new film version of Pride and Prejudice. I must say, the former was far more fun than I suspect the later will be. Like Clueless (updated version of Emma) and Ten Things I Hate About You (aka Taming of the Shrew), it transported the plot of the original into a different setting. So instead of inwardly ranting "they got that wrong, and this isn't how I imagine X", one sits there and thinks "wow, that's a clever equivalent" and otherwise just basks in the fun. In this case, Bollywood fun. Was very amused that the Bollywood rule, which incidentally is also an Austen rule, was kept - no kissing! Lots of dancing and songs instead. I adored this film.
I also soothed my overseas Serenity waiting woes by buying the first issue of the comic Joss obligingly wrote to fill in the events between Objects in Space and the movie. So far, so neat. It was so good to "hear" everyone's voices again. Art-wise, there is a gender divide - the drawings of the men look like them, but alas the women look more like generic pretty women than Zoe, Kaylee, Inara and River respectively. My favourite snark of the issue belonged to Book and was his reply to a certain question of Mal's. I *heart* Book.
Speaking of comics: I also aquired the first issue of 1602: New World (not bad, but it'll take more good issues to convince me to change my "only Mike Carey should be allowed to write Neil Gaiman spin-offs" rule) and two trade collections of Fables. The later because londonkds, oyceter and kangeiko all liked it, so I put aside my Bill Willingham issues enough to buy them. The preliminary verdict: okay, I still think he ought to be punished somehow for what he did to Thessaly and should never be allowed to write her again, or any other Sandman character. But his own stuff is good. The fairy tale characters done the noir way gimmik works, and Bigby Wolf and Snow White are really entertaining twists on the hard boiled detective and the fast talking, tough dame respectively. Was also impressed that he didn't always go for the obvious, as with the entire Prince Charming versus Blue Beard confrontation. I'm a bit uncertain what the rules about the Fables are, because they aren't all fairy tale creatures. Pinnochio comes from a novel by Carlo Callodini. And in his grand remembrance speech, King Cole referenced Narnia and Aslan, also products of a whole series of novels. So can we expect hobbits any time soon? Put another way, this reminds me of Phantásien (aka Phantasia) in Michael Ende's Neverending Story, or indeed the Dreaming, where all fantasy creatures ever dreamed up coexist.
On Thursday, I saw Bride and Prejudice and by sheer coincidence the trailer for the new film version of Pride and Prejudice. I must say, the former was far more fun than I suspect the later will be. Like Clueless (updated version of Emma) and Ten Things I Hate About You (aka Taming of the Shrew), it transported the plot of the original into a different setting. So instead of inwardly ranting "they got that wrong, and this isn't how I imagine X", one sits there and thinks "wow, that's a clever equivalent" and otherwise just basks in the fun. In this case, Bollywood fun. Was very amused that the Bollywood rule, which incidentally is also an Austen rule, was kept - no kissing! Lots of dancing and songs instead. I adored this film.