Interdimension time travel talk

No, there isn't going to be any physics or any scientific talk here. What I know of science is from comic books and films.

But really, I've been thinking, if I had a choice between who I'd travel with, which would I pick? The doctor with his TARDIS and his sonic screwdriver and his need to help everyone and be involved in politics and altering time and history, or Ford Prefect and his thumb and his towel and his need to see the world and have fun and get lost in the past and drink dangerous alien alcoholic drinks?

I asked my dad this question and we both actually had to think. Either is just as dangerous as the other, the Doctor has enemies after him(the Master, the Daleks, etc) and there's no garauntee that you, as companion, would survive traveling with the Doctor (Rose-lost in another dimension, Donna-forgot everything about the Doctor and if she ever remembers her brain will burn out, Sarah Jane-waited forever for him to come home. Martha's the only one who walked away and got a normal life, but she'll never recover from the Doctor). And Ford Prefect, he makes enemies and friends everywhere he goes, he has no concept of self-preservation, much less looking out for his companions, he left Arthur Dent alone in the universe to figure out what to do. The Doctor at least worries and protects his companions, Ford Prefect just goes off on his own.

And then Dad pointed out that the Doctor controls time, or can manipulate it, so you could travel with him for years and centuries and decades and millineum and then he'd drop you right back at the second you left, and no one would be the wiser. Ford Prefect would take you to the end of the Galaxy, the end of Time itself and then say, 'well, how do we get back home?' and it'd be another adventure to get back, but no gaurantee that you'd make it to the world you knew.

(although technically, the world you knew was already destroyed, hence the whole getting onboard with Ford thing.)

I don't know. Ford seems to be more a partyer, going from planet to the next and just doing his own thing. The Doctor's just traveling because he has no where to go, so..

I suppose, in the end, I'd pick to go with the Doctor, even if it meant I got a bad ending.

Ford Prefect, his philosophy is amazing and inspiring, but he's freakin' nuts, I'm not trusting my life with a dude who got Arthur Dent lost in prehistoric Earth-2.

A fish story (Sirène Song)

I found this video while looking for something else and it's just so cute I couldn't resist.

Chris Evans time!

Aww lookit that face. I think Chris Evans is slowly becoming my second favorite actor. He'll never be my first favorite, but considering Sir Ian Mckellen is the one residing in #1, it's pretty dang good to get that high up. I first saw him in 'Not Another Teen Movie' when it first came out, with my friend Samantha. I remember, at the time, being so fascinated by his hair, it was so obviously dyed. He was pretty funny in that movie, and then I forgot about him. When he played Johnny Storm in the Fantastic Four series, I took notice of him, and I adore his protrayal of Johnny Storm. Maybe loving the movies isn't something to admit openly, not to comic book fans, but you know what? I consider the movies different from canon, an interpretation, so I can love both the comic and the movie versions. But anyways, I found his Johnny spot on. And then for a while, I only liked him as Johnny. And considering his role in Not Another Teen Movie, I started to think of him as a..I don't recall the term for an actor that only does one thing, but I considered him a one trick pony, he was GOOD at what he did, but I thought all he could do was comedy. When I heard he was going to play Captain America, I was concerned, because although I like Chris Evans and although I like Captain America, I couldn't get the image of well.. Johnny Storm as Steve Rogers out of my head. I thought perhaps he'd already been type cast. Then I caught the tail end of 'Cellular" and his role in that movie, well, it proved he could do drama just as well as comedy, and when The Losers came out, I'd already resolved to see it because it had Jeffery Dean Morgan and Zoe Saladana in it, he was just icing.

Well, he was the best part of the movie! At least for me. He was funny and dramatic and had the character down pat. Seriously, I was impressed. So now I've got Sunshine and Fierce People, and I plan to watch them to see how well he did those roles, and I am actually looking forward to seeing his portrayal of Steve Rogers/Captain America.

I might even go see Scott Pilgrim Vs The World since he's in it. I'm really leaning towards it.

Even though Michael Ceras is the star. I'm sorry but he creeps me out, always has since Arrested Development.

Wondercon 2010 Recap

Wow this is a few weeks late, I would have done this recap a lot sooner but I'd been waiting for pictures to come out of the whole thing and they haven't. But I have scans of art! And a screencap!

In my last post, I discussed getting to go see Kick-Ass a week or so before it

premiered and how much I loved it. My friend Jenna is actually showing up in the commercials for it! She's the one in pink who kicks at the camera. But when I was watching the commercial, I realized *I'M* in it too! I circled where we are in the pic

ture.

But anyways, back to Wondercon! So Jenna and I have been going to conventions for years as a pair, mostly APEcon and anime conventions, and last year's Wondercon was her first WC, and so this year she jumped at the chance to go again. I went with the express notion of meeting Amanda Connor and Jenna wanted to meet Peter Beagle, the writer of The Last Unicorn. We showed up and we went to the artist alley, where we try to get doodles, and Jenna got a cute sketch of a unicorn and I got a commision

of Boy Blue from this woman. Isn't it adorable? After her, we went by this table looking for the guy who played Chewbacca and ended up THISCLOSE to Adam Baldwin! HE IS TAAAALLLL.

We went by the artist alley again, where I got a doodle from FRANK CHO!

He was pretty nice, so I'm glad I worked up the nerve to talk to him. After Frank Cho, we swung by Amanda Connor's table but she wasn't there, so we went over to Peter Beagle's table. He was pretty nice and signed Jenna's copy of the movie of the Last Unicorn three times, plus a picture she bought from his table.

He was willing to sign my sketchbook too. That imprint you see on the paper is the Frank Cho sketch, so now I have two in one!

Jenna was so excited about Peter Beagle and her unicorn sketch that she ran over to this other booth to show off the autograph and it turned out the man running the booth was doing some sort of record breaking thing where he did as many sketches as he could for the whole weekend so Jenna got on board for a...unicorn. She had a unicorn full day.

I got on for a girl cowboy. After I got my girl cowboy, we decided to swing by the artist alley to see if Amanda Connor was there. She was! And she was so so nice! I'm an even bigger fan of hers than I was before. So much so I even went out the next day to my local comic book store (Flying Colors) and bought the Power Girl TPB with Amanda Connor's pencils. The cover and a place to buy it: Here. Anyways, promoting done, I stood in line and she asked if I was there for the writer and when I told her I was here for HER, she acted all surprised, and I got to tell her how much I love her art and how I love how she draws her women. I bought a Catwoman print(which I don't have a scan of, it's too big for my scanner) and she was just so nice and gracious. Definitely going on my list of people I adore. After her, we decided the con was a bust so after stopping by Trina Robbins' table to buy her new book, we went to dinner and came back for the movie 'Kick-Ass' which you all read about in my last post. Next year will be fun and I look forward to it!

Shut Up. Kick Ass

Wondercon was this past weekend and although I picked up some cards and freebies, as well as getting some sketches and getting to meet Amanda Connor face to face and telling her I love her art(OMG she is the nicest nicest person ever) it was all quickly and superbly overshadowed by an event that happened that night. My friend Jenna and I went to the Kick-Ass booth to see about getting tickets to get into the autographing booth for the movie because her favorite actor portrays Red Mist(the kid in red on the ads) but when we arrived, this older woman asked if it was just us two there and when we said yes, she asked if we wanted to be on a panel for the advance screening of Kick-Ass, which was even better (maybe) than getting autographs so we got to see the entire movie before its release on April 16. I'm not here to spoil it or review it, I'm here to say it was, indeed, awesome, the fight scenes featuring Hit Girl was extremely well executed and planned, I loved the cinematography and the way it was handled. As far as I'm concerned, Hit Girl is where the movie's at. The other actors were cool, I liked Kick Ass and Red Mist, I even liked Kick Ass's friend, not the one in glasses, the other one, he looked familiar but comparing them to Hit Girl's character, they all paled immensely. She was so ruthless but so devoted to her father and equal parts badass vigilante and adorable geek girl, helping Kick Ass while also taking him down a notch. If they release her as a doll or something, I'll be adding her to my collection.

Just Rhythm Emotion

If you were a teenager or a young adult in the late 90s and early 2000s who was into anime, you can probably surmise what this post is going to be about.

Gundam Wing is one of a long running series about pilot operated futuristic robots called Gundams. It's been around since, what, the 60s?

Out of all the different series and takes on the same mythology, GW seems to be the most popular in America, I think.

I'm not sure why, in comparison to other series, that GW was more popular. Perhaps it was timing, having been released in America right in the midst of the big boom in which everyone was suddenly clamoring for anime and manga or perhaps it was the infamous yaoi fanbase that propagated underground, or the intricate and diverse backstories of the cast of characters. Although, to be fair, it seems to me the Gundam series' have all had a tradition of having complex characters, so I can't say GW was the only Gundam series to have that. More likely, I suspect, it was timing. Or the fanbase.

Anyways, I'm not going to go into detail about the plot: I found it confusing and boring, it was too political for 15 year old me. The characters I liked, but to be true, the plot and their connections to the plot went over my head and I probably missed alot of information, and such, I like characters I shouldn't and dislike characters I should like, perhaps. I digress. To be concise, I liked Gundam Wing for the boys and the fanbase, not the show or the political intrigue. Perhaps now that I'm older, I can appreciate the more nuanced subtleties of the show. Perhaps now that I'm older and rewatching the series, I'll like it better and understand it better. Maybe.

But for now, I'll go from my memories.

I got into it through friends and through the online fanbase. I was reading summaries and stories about Trowa before I saw him in action-so to speak- and I was already madly madly in love with him. He was the silent and strong, serious but acrobatic type. He was like Dick Grayson, my first fictional love, only without the sparkly panties and the nonstop wise-cracking. I just adored him, the circus acrobat who piloted the flamboyant red Gundam and who followed the other four pilots silently.

The show did have interesting parts, for me, it was the characters. I loved the parts with Trowa and Catherine at the circus, and Trowa and Heero, Trowa and Quatre, Treize, Zechs, Duo and Heero, the parts that was them in day to day life, or in non Gundam space battles and non political debates, was interesting to me, enough to keep me going.

Right from the start, I adored adored ADORED Trowa, the one with the floofy collar in the top of the picture. He was silent, and stoic, and business like but still kind and in my mind, he was just shy. Although, yeah, because of his upbringing, more likely he was just socially awkward, what with never being allowed to be a kid, and always having to be a soldier.

I liked the villains too, they were more complicated and even as a squawking fifteen year old, I could appreciate complexity in characters. Treize was the more favorite one I think. And now, apparently, I love him all the more for having had an illegitimate bastard child.

Most of all, GW was more of a community to me,than a show. My friends and I had stories we shared about the GW people, we had drawings and conversations about the series and online a whole world was open to me, where I could find stories about Trowa, as a spy, as a pirate, as a prince, as a doctor. GW was my introduction to internet fanbases, to actual fanfic sites and shrines and music videos and doujinshis. Up til GW, I only knew of the Bobby Drake site, UnFrozen, which seems to be down now, unfortunately, and I thought that was it. Sites to read and absorb information passively. GW showed me that there's people on the other end, people to email and to write to, and to fangirl over the same common like, people who formed a community.

Sailor Moon got me into the internet, and GW got me to stay.

If Only We had Wings, We Might Fly Higher

Title is from a song lyric I read somewhere and liked. And I think it suits the topic today: The Cal Leandros series by Rob Thurman

In summary, the Cal Leandros series is about a half monster half human young man named Cal and his band of merry men(and women) as they try to keep New York and the world safe from Cal's monstrous relatives, the Auphe.

Basically, I read the first and second books last summer, and started the third, which I just finished recently, while on my trip to Japan last august. At first reading, they read like pretty well written fanfiction. The author has a great idea, a good grasp of mythology and seems to be enthusiastic about her characters and that feeling came across, so I was able to find enjoyment in slogging through her overuse of purple prose and nonsensical overdramatic wording. One line that came to mind is from the first book: "It took me a moment to realize that was a venomous version of a snake's wistful sigh". I'm sorry, but does that make sense to anyone? She spends too much time trying to be clever and poetical, when I prefer she spent time focusing on the story, it is a GOOD story. I found myself having a hard time reading her stuff, because her writing style was so jarring, I found myself more distracted by the wording, and so when I started the third book, I wasn't in a push to finish it. But I did recently, and I just started re-reading the first book. Let me tell you, the series is going on my list as top favorites, under 'Guilty Pleasure'. Some people have 'Twilight' some people have romances, I guess as far as guilty pleasures go, the Cal Leandros series isn't so bad.

Purple prose overkill aside, this is why I like this series. If you love 'Supernatural' this might be something up your alley. The main character, Cal, is half human half Auphe, a horrible, ruthless bloodthirsty race of monsters from another dimension. Ever since he was a teenager and was snatched away to the Auphe home dimension, he and his older brother, Niko, have been on the run from the Auphe. The bond between brothers is a favorite to be written about, and I love sibling stories, so having the two brothers be so close and so dear to each other, to the point where they will die for each other, is something I love having to read about.(Although, often, Rob Thurman will repeat that they are close brothers who love each other, rather than 'showing' it or accepting that we, the readers, already know and accept that they are awesome brothers..) Niko is pretty cool himself, a smart, self educated man in literature and martial arts, he's cool and collected and has more faith in Cal's humanity than Cal himself. Niko is also dating Promise, an older vampire heiress, who often accompanies the men on monster hunts. She's portrayed as cold but maternal. To be honest, I'm not getting much of a feel for her yet, even though it's been three books already. I'm not sure if I like her or am ambivalent about her. I guess being ambivalent about women characters is a step further than hating them. We get so many women characters who are shown as either perfect or bitchy that I can't help but hate the character for either being an unrealistic representation of women or for just being a jerk. So Promise, as an ambivalent character is ok for me. George, the young psychic that Cal is in love with(or at least until the third book...?) is the same way too. On one hand, I like her for being sassy, and strong and defiant in Cal's self-pitying sacrificial behavior, on the other, she's shown as a perfect girl, on a pedestial-in fact, Cal refers to her as his Red and Gold girl at some point, if I recall?-that I can't help but feel we are being pressured to view George in only one flat 2-d way. Even though it is through Cal's eyes that we are reading the story and such, through his eyes that we see and know George so that may very well be the reason why we only see her as the serene ever-loving girl of his dreams. Cal is pretty cool, in my book. I like him, but my favorite is the puck.

Robin Goodfellows, the immortal over-sexed charming lonely former god. The brothers Leandros met Robin at a used car lot. They blackmailed him into helping them get information on the Auphe. He got attacked because of it. But he came back. Cal saw his loneliness from endless years being the only one of his kind, and was willing to let him hang around. Over time, the two of them become friends and I totally want a later book to have the two of them go on a road trip and have wacky hijinks and high adventures culminating in a deep bro love bond like JD and Turk from 'Scrubs'. I don't know why it is Robin is my favorite, and it seems, from some cursory scanning the internet for Cal Leandro fanlove, he's a favorite of other fans too. Maybe it's because he serves as the comic relief in the story, maybe it's because he's the immortal with underground connections and who always backs the brothers up. Maybe it's because of his banter with Promise, Niko and Cal. I think, maybe, it's because when he shows up, we know something is about to go down, whether its someone's pants or a fight.

In short, the Cal Leandros series is a fun read to have in the hours before bedtime, in a comfy chair by a warm fire, or in a bubble bath. Just don't expect pulitzer level writing.

You can find her books at amazon.