lydamorehouse: (crazy eyed Renji)
 I'm hoping to do an old-fashioned, LJ-era type con report for Minicon, which starts today.

I'm obviously not there yet. My first panel is tonight at 5:30 pm, which is an awkward time for me. I was shown my schedule several months ago, of course, but I didn't really fully consider the time slots. You maybe know how it is? I was more focused, at the time, on the subject matters and whether or not I thought I would be a good fit. I don't remember being asked if there were times and dates I couldn't do, but I also missed the first email that went out--it ended up in my spam box somehow. So, that's probably also on me.

At any rate, I could not have predicted that Shawn would be in the middle of performance review crunch time at work. She really wanted to be able to stay late and finish things up as today is her deadline for the last of them. And, since we are a one car family, I need to get her home and be on the road at LEAST by 5:00 pm and even that feels a little risky. (Highway 494 is under construction and 5:00 is rush hour.)  So, I am already anxious about everything and wondering when the heck I'm going to get a chance to even eat. Again, Shawn and I are old ladies and so we eat at 4:30-5:00 pm most days. There's just not going to be time for that.

Currently, the plan for food involves stopping at Breadsmiths on the way to pick her up and eating a sandwich in the car on the way to the con. Shawn, at least, has leftover homemade pasties in the fridge. Maybe those would be okay cold? I think there is enough for both of us to have one. Maybe I'm saved. We'll see.

Anyway, tonight will be kind of a stressful mess (at least partly of my own making) even before I actually sit down to try to moderate the panel. At least we were able to shift our date night to Thursday (last night) thanks to my writers' group Pendragons canceling. So, this was fun. We always do dinner and a movie or if you prefer, Netflix and chill (wink, wink.) Last night, Shawn and I ended up watching The Electric State. I have a lot of mixed feelings about this one. Did anyone else see it? It's brand new, a 2025 release, and has that annoying dude, Star Lord, in it--one of the Marvel Chris-es. (I think this is the one that's actually Minnesotan, originally from Virginia. Yes, Chris Pratt.) Shawn and I talked about it afterwards, like you do, and for us the problem was that it was absolutely 100% NOT a "feel good" movie. A lot of people that you get very invested in die. And, SPOILER ) So, I mean.... it's kind of hard to cheer at the end? There were a lot of other things we both liked about it, but you get to the end feeling very "..." which is not the stuff blockbuster movies are made of, you know? Not ones starring Chris Pratt and which have a lot of jocular humor in them. The tone just wasn't right at the beginning for that downer of an ending. At last not for us. I'd love to hear what you thought of it, if you've seen it.

But, back to tonight, I really can't be late to the con tonight because not only am I the moderator, but also one of the guests of honor, Wesley Chu, is going to be on the panel. I absolutely do not want to start out with my foot in it, you know? Especially since I have a panel later, on Saturday, with him as well. 

The subject matter of tonight's panel should be easy to moderate, I hope. It's "On Learning How to Write." The panel description itself gives a basic set of questions to start with and I have found that it's often not difficult to get writers to talk about their process and/or writing, in general. Of couse, now that I've said this, the panelists will all be taciturn and closed-mouthed and I'll have to break out a song and dance routine just to get through the hour or however long we have.

I think that's everything I'm pre-thinking about. I had a chance to look through the programming book, which is online as a .pdf at Minicon's main site: https://mnstf.org/minicon58/ There is a movie showing tonight in the Film Obscura room that actually interests me: "The New Mutants." I've long been a Marvel fan and I never made it to the theater to see this one, so I am vaguely tempted to hang around long enough tonight to catch it.

Oh, that's the other thing I failed to pay attention to in terms of my schedule, I am the OPPOSITE of a night owl (a morning lark!) and all my panels tomorrow go WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY past my bedtime. Like, I have one that starts at 10 pm. With my CoCoRaHS volunteering, too, I am actually required to be up before 7 am every single day of the week. I'm usually up by 5:30-6:00 am so that's not a huge problem, but it is more difficult when I don't get to bed until after 11 pm. And, I will be honest with you, my friends, I am in bed, sound asleep many nights by 8:30 pm. So, even having a panel that starts at 7 pm feels really LATE to me. 

I'm also likely going to one of very few people masking the entire time so that ought to be... interesting, as we say here in Minnesota. I know this makes me a Dolly Downer. But, y'all, no offense. It's not about your health status. I'm not judging you. My wife is immunocompromised. I'm sure you're bummed not to see my smiling face, but your momentary pleasure is not worth her life. Full stop. Sorry/not sorry. I had a very telling back and forth with someone in MNstF via text not that long ago, wherein it was patently clear that if I wanted to show up to the business meeting/party with a mask on, I wasn't welcome. So... that's extra fun.

I'm not really made for conventions any more, I am realizing. I used to be? But I was also thirty years younger back then.

Oh well. Bonus, just in time for people to be pulling back on all their virtual programming, too. Alack, alas, what do you do. I'm still expecting to have a great deal of fun this weekend. Maybe I'll see some of you all there!
lydamorehouse: (Bazz-B)
 As noted on a previous blog, I just finished Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell. I enjoyed it, despite occasionally feeling miles a head of the protagonist in terms of Clues to Pick Up On. However, I never know if that's actually a problem or just my well-honed writerly sense of foreshadowing and how it's used in narratives, due to spending much of my life workshopping professional-level writing in my two writers' groups. So, it's possible that it would not be an issue for most.

I have a number of things in my TBR pile, but probably I will be listening to Frankenstein next. Not only did Libby finally cough it up for me after being on hold forever, but we are doing a deep-dive into it for my cyberpunk podcast in time for Halloween, which is coming up fast. I think it will be fun to try to make the case that Frankenstein is cyberpunk--it certainly tackles a lot of the same themes as cyberpunk: what does it mean to be human? When is science TOO much science? And, there is no question in my mind that Frankenstein is the first science fiction novel. This will be, I think, my second reading. I'm pretty sure I had to read Frankenstein as part of my English major in college. Though I remember nothing of substance about it.

 As for manga and anime media, I seem to be falling into movies lately. On Crunchyroll, I watched Josee, the Tiger and the Fish.  I recommend it? It's a very sweet coming-of-age romance between two new adults, one of whom has been disabled (wheelchair bound) since birth. I found it really heartwarming. I tend to love me a good slice-of-life where a large percentage of it is just people discovering how cool it is to be alive in the world today.
 
The other one I watched yesterday might not be available anywhere you can get it because it comes via my membership in the Japanese Film Festival (JFF). You might be able to just sign up for it?  https://en.jff.jpf.go.jp/  It is, I believe, free.
 
Several years ago, I stumbled on to JFF because Facebook advertised to me that there was a Satoshi Kon film festival and I SLAMMED the sign me up button so hard that somehow I ended up with a Japan Foundation membership. At any rate, I get push notifications any time they're running another film festival. Thus, I spotted that the JFF was going to be debuting a live-action version of ReLife. Unfortunately, that isn't yet streaming in North America!  Bummer!

BUT, while I was there I found some things I could watch, including this great anime movie called Time of Eve, which is about robot love or rather more accurately the bonds between humans and machines. One of the things I adore about all the Japanese manga and anime I've consumed on the subject of artificial life so far is that the assumption never seems to be "Can machines generate real human emotions," but rather, "When the robots generate real human emotions, will we be emotionally mature enough to accept them as people?"   

Wikipedia tells me that there was an anime TV series of Time of Eve first, which doesn't surprise me.  You can kind of tell from the movie that they are condensing a lot. It was still a good movie.  Someone also did a manga after the fact, apparently, which I have open on another tab because I'd like to be able to review it for MangaKast (and I try to only review things that have corresponding manga--in part because everyone and their dog reviews anime TV and movies, and almost no one reviews solely manga.) 

I think that's most of what's been going into my brain lately. 

How about you? Whatcha reading?
lydamorehouse: (renji has hair)
 On Friday's, Shawn and I have a "date night." It's really just 'us' time and not necessarily more romantic than that. We usually pick a dinner that we can eat on the porch or in our comfy chairs in the living room, depending on the season. Then. we prop up our iPad, or, if we're feeling fancy, laptop with special stereo adaptor, and settle in for some streaming something--often a movie. This last Friday, we watch a film that was so obviously filmed during the isolation part of the pandemic that I was kind of surprised they wasted the budget money, since half of the shots were of one woman, sitting in a chair, and the other half was LITERALLY WATCHING AUDACITY RECORD. The movie is called, Monolith. It's apparently an award winning show that had positive reception, but I think I would have enjoyed it as JUST a podcast. 

The story was fine? I was not surprised by most of the twists and turns, but Shawn said she was, so that might mean it was just my writerly brain superpower activating and not actually a real problem with the show. Anyone else see this one? What did you think?

I have not managed much more drawing on my slice-of-life diary in part because life has managed to be busy. Mason headed back to school in Connecticut this morning at 8 am, and a lot of the previous week was getting him packed up and ready to go. Shawn and I spent most of the rest of today digging through the house looking for things for the Midway Free Sale, which will be happening next weekend. We have put ourselves on the map as one of the stops because god knows we have stuff to unload. So, this is just a first past. If you are local, you should check it out. Apparently, there will be a map. I will try to remember to share information when the Google Map is released. 

Meanwhile, I had a consult with a nutritionist. I asked my doc for a referral because I've been struggling with GERDs. I got some... interesting advice that seems to be working. Honestly, it almost sounds like quackery. The nutritionist suggested that, because sometimes GERDs is a result of not enough acid, if you swallow a teaspoon of cider vinegar with a glass of water that will help things move along. She said that I would know immediately if it was the wrong solution and, if so, I should just stop.  My approach to a lot of this stuff is "Well, if it doesn't actively HURT me, why not try it?"  And it seems to be doing the trick! Fingers crossed. 

I've been spending my weekend revising and populating my Thirsty Sword Lesbian cyberpunk one-shot for the upcoming ConFABulous.  I should probably be working on gathering examples for the next themed episode of the podcast, but I'm giving myself a small play break. 

What about you? Been up to anything much?
lydamorehouse: (phew)
I have been reading and consuming a literal f*ck ton thanks to my new podcast. Once again, I will break things down by category.

BOOKS
I started and finished listening to Annalee Newitz's novel Autonomous, which I sort of hated? I had real issues with the character of Paladin for reasons which I will only get into privately, so if you want to know reach out. But, it is definitely cyberpunk and queer, so it's on the list to talk about next week. 

The only other cyberpunk book that my library had available as an audiobook was Charlie Stross's Rule 34, which... is pretty fascinating so far, if only because it is told in the second person. 

SHORT STORIES
"Papa's Going to Buy You a Mockingbird," by Lillian Boyd (Fireside, June 2021).  Another story of hyper-capitalism, where our heroes come together to try to fix a problem caused by renting out your own head for ad space. It feels weirdly plausible in a depressing way.
 
"Across the River, My Heart, My Memory," by Ann LeBlanc (Fireside, July 2021). A story told from the point of view of someone's black market mod pancreas. Yes, the pancreas is telling the story, you heard that right. You kind of have to read it to believe it, but it works. The protag is a pancreas that has the stored memories of a lesbian who is part of a kind of institutional memory coop, which feels very 1990s dyke culture to me... and so read very authentically queer, if you know what I mean.

"Cruise Control,"
by Benjamin C. Kinney (Fireside, July 2021), which is about a guy who talks his grandpa into becoming a car. it's not gay in any way that I could see, but it is very, very cyberpunk.
 
"Clown Watches the Clown" by Sara S. Messenger, which is... clown beating fetish + unions??? It is rare that I leave a story and think, "What did I just read?" but this was definitely one of them.  Also, not sure how cyberpunk-y it is, outside of the world being very dystopian and the characters been very much part of the underclass. Kind of worth a read, though?


MANGA:
I am only just in the B's of the alphabetical list of cyberpunk manga generated for me by Baka-Updates. But, I got through several over the last week:

AD. Police by Suzuki Toshimichi / Tony Takezaki, which is apparently part of a fairly popular franchise that I had never heard of, but which is kind of a Blade Runner rip-off, in that basically these are cops who hunt down robot crimes (a theme that will continue as we go down the list.) 

Armored Gull: The Exoskeleton Frame
by Las, a Korean manhua which only had a few chapters published, so I was left wondering when the cyberpunk part would hit. Currently, it seems to be a mecha manga, which is very pretty? There may be a plot coming (as it seems to have been somewhat telegraphed) that our young scientist hero is maybe NOT who he says he is. 

Armitage the Third by Konaka Chiaki / Ikegami Tatsuya--another manga from a surprisingly large franchise of movies and anime. I had so much trouble reading more than a couple of chapters of this that I should probably put this one in the next category, which is things watched. I hunted down the first episode of a four part OVA of this just so I could get a better sense of it. It's basically about Martian cops who hunt down illegal robots and prosecute robot crimes. The twist here is that our heroine, Armitage, is herself a third generation robot virtually indistinguishable from humans. 

I also started and didn't yet finish Blame! by Nihei Tsutomu.

THINGS WATCHED:
In amongst all of this cyberpunk stuff, it is also the Japanese Film Festival Online (until June 18) and, while I'm not trying to catch everything (which would be darn near impossible, given that there are hundreds of films available,) I did pick up at least one other film this last week. 

BL Metamorphosis, directed by Kariyama Shunsuki, which is based on a manga of the same name by Tsurutani Kaori. This film was INSANELY CHARMING. It's about a friendship that forms between a 78-year old woman and a 15 year old girl over their mutual appreciation of a particular yaoi series. I've been describing this to a lot of people because I love it so much, but one of the things that makes the movie awesome is that it's paced just like a yaoi, there's even a kind of "break-up due to easily solved miscommunication" that happens about 2/3rd in and they get a very satisfying friendship version of an HEA. There's even an element of forbidden love, because at one point the 15 year old gets asked who that woman is to her and she shouts, "She's not my grandma!" and runs away, ashamed, just like what happens in a lot of yaoi stories when someone first suggests to the hero that he might be gay.

Then, I watched the Netflix original anime movie based on Blame! (2017) directed by Seshita Hiroyuki and I'm not ashamed to say I liked it. Apparently, it gets a lot of hate because it's not a faithful adaptation of the manga, but I've been having  a hard time getting into the manga, so I'm not sure I care. 

So, that's been a lot. How about you? What 'cha reading these days?
lydamorehouse: (Default)
 My TBR pile has not gotten measurably shorter.

I did, at least, on the recommendation of [personal profile] hippogriff13 read the amazing seinen manga The Summer Hikaru Died by Mokumoku Ren. I only had the first volume out from the library and I loved it so much that I had to go find everything else that was available online. Then I also read literally everything else that Mokumoku-sensei has had published. I'm not sure I can recommend this manga enough, though it comes with a lot of caveats, namely that hauntingly sad. Also, I was expecting slice-of-life from the title? Nope. It's full-on supernatural/supernatural-horror. Because, as we learn on page one, Hikaru is dead, but something else comes back wearing his body.

Also, the art is amazing. Like, truly.

Otherwise, my pile remains static. It's been a strangely busy time for me. I find publicity for book releases to be as tiring as it is necessary. I am deeply excited to see these books in print, however. I made a little video of my unboxing, if you all want to see it. I probably should have combed my hair before filming, but I WAS JUST THAT EXCITED. 

Also, Shawn continues to have a number of doctor appointments--all of which are follow-ups, but it still require me to play taxi and drive all around town. 

Mason is coming home on Friday night, so Shawn and I had a "date night observed" last night. We got some hamburgers to go and sat in front of the computer and streamed The Voyagers, which was, as its Rotten Tomato scores suggest, OKAY. As I told Shawn halfway through, it's a bit like "What if Lord of the Flies, but Space... and also they work it out (possibly because there are women)?"
lydamorehouse: (nic & coffee)
 The big thing making Monday so very Monday-like today is stuff I really don't want to talk about--home insurance woes (like, the getting of a new policy after Secura dumped personal home insurance in Minnesota) and free-floating malaise regarding the universal problem of Not Having Enough Money, but also at my age (which I feel just adds extra depression. Like, as a kid I always I imagined there would be a time when I might age into wealth and stability. *Hahahaha... gross sobs.*) 

So, instead of all that malarky, I will tell you about the very cheesy media I have been consuming lately. Okay, some of it was actually sort of good? But, here's a run down:

I AM MOTHER. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Mother) Shawn and I were both pleasantly surprised by this movie. Like, every time we thought we knew for sure what was going on, we'd only be partly right--and I LOVE films like that. The basic premise is that we begin the story after an Extinction Event in what appears to be an embryonic seed silo. A robot "mother" is assembled and raises a daughter to be perfectly empathetic and obedient. Everything is going along well, until one day, a human shows up OUTSIDE the bunker's door begging for help. Everything unravels from there.

Fully recommend. 

Reading through the Wikipedia site, apparently the New York Times reviewer thinks the movie "shows its cards too early" but remains suspenseful. That might be true, depending on what you think is being revealed. I posit that the thing that I was expecting does happen, but in a way that I found my sympathies shifting slowly towards a very unexpected (and only satisfying if you have the same shift) ending. I wish I wanted to spoil this more, but I want people to watch it, so I won't.

Meanwhile, LIFE (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_(2017_film) was insanely predictable and really only for the viewers, like Shawn and I, who generally appreciate a good monster-horror film. Also, there is a giant plot hole regarding the atmosphere that I would get into, if I cared more about this film. I will note that I spent the whole time saying, "This would be a better film, if human beings had tried being NICE for once," but, you know, probably that would have just meant a different kind of face-eating movie than it already was.

The above, in reverse order, was Shawn and my date night double-feature. Thank goodness we watched I am Mother last or we might not have made it all the way through Life

I listened to two other movies over the weekend: THE LIE and THE CAVE. I will get to their mini reviews in a second, but I have to explain what I mean by "listened to." So, like most families these days, most of what we consume is streaming. We have a TV screen in the house, two of them, in fact. But, I can't remember when the last time was that we turned either on for anything other than gaming (and by "we," in this case, I fully mean just Mason.)  Shawn loves to watch movies and TV shows while crafting. She's been working on paper piecing a grandmother's garden quilt since forever and while she does that, she props up her Kindle next to her chair and watches. 

When Mason is here, she puts on headphones. Same, if I want to watch something different than what she's watching--then, we both plug in. Most of the time, my wife and I have fairly separate tastes? She's the horror and murder mystery fan, heavy on the British police procedurals. me, I'm watching anime and science fiction. 

But, a lot of the times, especially on the weekends when I'm not catching up on some anime or other, she just lets the audio roll. I sit across the room from her and treat it like a radio play. But, since it's not a radio play with narrated stage directions, I'll occasionally have to ask, "What's happening? That's awfully suspenseful music! Can they see the body?" and Shawn will give me a quick little rundown of whatever's on screen that's not being described.  If she knows I'm into it, she will often just volunteer information, ala, "Oh no! Brittany's Dad just saw them through the curtains!" 

So, I can't say I've SEEN either of these two films. But, I listened to The Lie (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lie_(2018_film) which is about a fifteen year old girl who tells her father she pushed a friend off a bridge--and the absolute sh*tshot that happens when the parents try to cover up this murderous impulse.  I spent a lot of this film doing that thing you do, which is trying to help people GET AWAY WITH MURDER. Like, you know, there's a certain intellectual curiosity around "can you plan the perfect murder?" that this movie would tap into if the parents weren't such utter morons. The ending, despite all of this, is a surprise. Can't say I'd ever have picked it for myself, but I was standing behind Shawn's chair in order to watch the final scene. 

The other movie I listened to this weekend was god awful, The Cave (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cave_(2005_film)  Shawn really loves monster horror--you know the stuff. It's where a monster basically is awakened, unearthed, discovered, stumbled across, unthawed, reanimated, etc., (good example being The Thing) which then proceeds jump scare the f*ck out of the audience while eating everyone's faces off, The End. (See: Life, above.) The Cave was this, but with a very weird twist involving, possibly--though not explicitly--the origin of the vampire myth.  Like, there are also almost NO A-list actors in this film... which I mean, I guess makes them prime canon fodder.  My experience from my side of the room was hearing a lot of "AHHHH, GOD, OH NO, AGGGGRRRRRHHHH" and Shawn saying, "I think he now has goat eyes? Oh, maybe super-hearing too??"  Not recommended as an audio experience. Perhaps the special effects made it more worthwhile.

That was kind of a lot of movies for us, but we've been really enjoying doing Friday date night movies. I'd say we're doing Netflix and chill, but apparently that means something else entirely (although also appropriate for date night.) 
lydamorehouse: Renji is a moron (eyebrow tats)
 Armenian food: chicken kabob wrap and mint lemonade
Image: Armenian food: chicken kabob wrap and frozen mint lemonade.

I'm having a late start to my writing today anyway since I had an early morning doctor's appointment (just a regular check-in). So, I thought I might as well take a few minutes and write to y'all about the Armenian festival at St. Sahag Church that Shawn and I went to on Saturday afternoon. 

By chance, Shawn and I were reminiscing about this on the way to the clinic. (Miraculously, Shawn and I had appointments at approximately the same time.) It was a lot LIKE the open house at the Watershed District in that it had a very small town, friendly vibe, with one critical difference--a difference that made us enjoy the cultural festival a little bit less. 

To set the stage first, however. St. Sahag is a very unimposing orthodox church a half of block in from Marshall Avenue on Hewitt.  This means nothing to my non-Twin Cities readers, but so you can picture this church having one end of its block abutting a decently busy throughway that connects St. Paul to Minneapolis (Marshall becomes Lake Street on the other side of the river.) The cross street just gives Twin Cities people a sense of the nearby neighborhood, which is working class--with the general mix of houses found throughout St. Paul, hidden grand Victorians and post-WWII ranches and every style in-between all sharing the same block. 

When Shawn and I first pulled up, we weren't sure if things were underway, even though we arrived a full half hour after festivities were scheduled to begin. The outside, as I said, was somewhat unassuming. So, no big signs pointing us to food, though we could see a few tents set up in the back of a permanent playground where a group of men seemed to be grilling. We decided to tour the exterior, if nothing else. On the opposite side of the church from the grillers was a big open door to a church basement, from which wafted the most mouth-watering flavors!  

In we went!

Once inside, we were greeted by two people, a man and a woman, who asked us what kind of tickets we wanted. This was another ticket = food situation, only here you paid in advance of what you thought you might spend. They had menus (with prices) posted everywhere, but it was still kind of an overwhelming decision. Since I had it in cash, I decided to just go for $20 to see what that might get us. I was handed a punch card with twenty dots on it. 

We were able to get a decent amount of food for twenty dollars. We bought the chicken kabob wrap and lemonade pictured above, as well as a couple of baked goods options from the upstairs, where the grandmas all had their cookies and cakes and such like on display. 

But here's where I think the major difference was. 

I think if Shawn and I were food tourists, we would have preferred the Armenian festival over the Watershed open house. If we'd had an unlimited budget, I'm sure we could have spent several hours (and an easy hundred bucks, if not more,) trying All The Things and having an amazing time doing it. The Armenians seemed aware of this. All of the entertainment was scheduled in the dining hall/church basement, on a little stage. So, ideally, one could find a spot at one of the tables to sit, watch the dancing or listen to the music and the other programming, while getting up every so often to refresh the lemonade or to try out some of the other foods on offer. 

As it was, we had a limited budget. So, when we filled up our punch card, we went home.  We went home happy? But it wasn't like the Watershed place where we could continue to explore all the FREE activities for as long as we wanted without feeling like we were occupying a table that should go to a paying customer, as it were. The Armenians had a bazaar, but, for us, that could only be window shopping at best, which is fine and FUN? But, again, we kind of hurried through that so that people who were going to spend money had the opportunity to do so.

And the festival was a fundraiser. Like, I do NOT begrudge them that.

Shawn and I were just trying to parse what it was about the comparably dorkier Watershed Open House that we liked so much more. I mean, obviously, we're dorks and government agency wonks, but, beyond that, this is what we could determine. One thing I learned from a year or so as a movie reviewer for the local queer newspaper is that things are automatically more enjoyable when they are FREE. I had to watch my tendency to say "it was fun!" about movies like Matthew Broderick's Godzilla (universally panned by everyone in the movie reviewing industry, EXCEPT my reivew in focusPOINT.Oops. That's my contribution to cinematic criticism, everyone! Whee. )

At any rate, we still had a great time and I was happy to know that my guess as to what Armenian food might be like was pretty much on the money.



===
*doesn't link to my actual review, though depending on how many papers have been digitized, perhaps one could find it. (Ah, in my ancient CV, I discovered this citation: Lyda Morehouse.  “The Lizard King: ‘Godzilla,’”  focusPOINT 5 49: 206 (May 20 – May 1998): 13.)  It was even published on PAGE THIRTEEN. Yeah.... bad luck for me. I don't know how many more reviews I did for them after that, but it wasn't a whole lot.
lydamorehouse: (Default)
 I posted my fic and then wandered away, I guess?

Sorry about that.

On Tuesday, I went by myself to the fan screening of the movie Psycho-Pass: Providence at the Roseville AMC. As I said to a friend, Crunchyroll placed a surgically striking ad in a pop-up when I logged in to see if there was any anime I was interested in watching. I've been a fan of Psycho-Pass forever, but it's a weird little cyberpunk where, n some distant future, Japan has instituted something they call the Sybil System that monitors people's "crime-coefficient" (a thing that measures how likely you are to commit crimes.) You can be executed and/or imprisoned just for being "a criminal type." It's sort of like Minority Report, except in this the law enforcement agents actually employs some of these not-quite-criminal, but criminally-minded sorts to aid Investigators as "Enforcers." So, there's (for me, anyway,) this fascinating underclass of people who do the dirty work of enforcing the very system that oppresses them. I kind of love everything about it? But, for whatever reason, I can't talk a lot of my fan friends into it? So, even though I immediately bought TWO tickets to this show, I couldn't even convince my son to go with me. 

Worse, when I got there, I discovered that that particular screening was dubbed.

I try very hard not to be a snob about dubbed versus subbed. This is one of those fan wars I try to stay out of, but I definitely prefer subbed when I can get it. But, if someone tells me that they watch something dubbed that I watch subbed, I say, "Yay, we're in the same fandom!" And that's the end of it for me.

But, as I was telling another friend, this one was tough to appreciate because for whatever reason the dubbed director cast two English-speaking actors to play opposite each other who had the same vocal range, the same accent, the same clipped speaking style, and the same delivery. The scenes they were in where they were exchanging quips during a battle... I had no idea who was saying what. Yes, in English. It was a real problem for me. You're probably thinking, but Lyda, the one talking is the one moving his mouth, how hard is this for you? Well, not all scenes were "shot" where you could always see their mouths. Sometimes people were walking through dark tunnels. Sometimes there was just a lot of action. So, now you're saying, "But then how would this have been better if you had to read subtitles at the same time?" I will tell you. The Japanese voice actors for these two characters have totally different vocal ranges, speak differently (in terms of emotions), and are distinct! So, even though the subtitles don't tell you who is talking, it's actually far easier to tell speakers apart when, say, one guy is a tenor and the other an alto. 

I have had to complain to everyone I know about this because I was alone. It always kind of sucks to go to movie theaters alone. I was also masked, although given that there were four other people in the entire theater with me, I probably didn't have to be.

On Monday and Friday night I played taxi to my wife. She's on the board of The Friends of the Ramsey County Library and they had a meeting in Shoreview on Monday and then some tech training at, of all places, The Good Earth restaurant in Roseville. This used to be a relatively popular cafe/restaurant chain. The tea still remains, but the only two places left to get the vegetarian menu exist in Minnesota. But, in both cases, I was not invited to the actual meeting, not being the board member, so I spent Monday trying to find any good manga I hadn't read yet on the shelves at Shoreview, and on Friday I spent the time in a nearby Starbucks people watching and writing some snail mail letters to friends.

Wednesday night I had D&D, but I managed to fail to make cookies for them... and then subsequently failed to write up my usual letter home. As I was telling Mason later, I'm having a bit of trouble with this character? I have literally never played a woman in an RPG before and... I can't say I like it.  Beyond my very personal reasons for never having done this before, I also made some mistakes in designing this character because I forgot to factor in real life sexism? Like, I forgot that if you want to play a fun-loving, sexually adventurous, chatty (ditzy?) woman, not only will the other player's characters dismiss you as a silly little thing, but also the tenor of whole game shifts?  Suddenly a lot of the around the table jokes get more pointed about who your character might choose to sleep with and what EXACTLY they might be doing with them, etc., etc. There's always some of that stuff and so it's not necessarily even a dealbreaker for me? Still. I mean, I'm still having fun with this character and this group, but I find that I'm engaging slightly less in character moments when they come up (to be fair, my Wednesday night group is much more a "kill things and take your stuff" bunch of players, anyway?) 

I think that's my whole week? I did some writing, but not on the right things. 
lydamorehouse: (Default)
 One of the exciting things that happened today that I totally forgot to mention in all my various updatery (Patreon and my newsletter) was that I was interviewed by Cat Rambo as part of the promotion they are doing around The Reinvented Heart Anthology. In a couple of days, Cat expects to have the interview with me up on the Cat Rambo Reinvented Anthology playlist. I will also absolutely drop a direct link when it goes live.

I always feel like I'm rambling? But, Cat says they will clean it up, so fingers cross that I come across vaguely human-ish. 

The interview came at a good time, at least, since I JUST (as in literal minutes earlier) finished writing the story that I'd promised Cat and crew for the next "Reinvented" anthology, called The Reinvented Detective. There is no detective in my story? Though it does deal with crime and punishment, per the submission guidelines. I love this story a lot because it is PRIME Lyda Morehouse weirdness, but I am uncertain that it will actually sell to this particularly market. We shall find out in May, one way or the other.

Other than that, I've been watching at lot of Satoshi Kon movies, actually. The Smithsonian's Museum of Asian Art is in the middle of a virtual film festival of Kon's work, and I've been taking advantage of the free access to finally catch up on Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress, and a documentary of Kon's life called: Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist. My anime-turned-C-Drama friend had shown me his Paprika movie early on and I ADORED it. Paprika is 100% the kind of science fiction I strive to write. (I should probably read the novel is it based on, but I'm not sure if it's been translated. I should look.) I have not seen Kon's Paranoia Agent (which is a TV series,) but I have now picked up and read at least one of his manga, which I'll probably talk about tomorrow.  

Anyway, the virtual film festival has proved so popular that they opened up additional viewings of Perfect Blue (which I ran out an snagged a ticket for) and Tokyo Godfathers. It is a weird thing they are doing because it's free, but they make you get a ticket? I think because they are the Smithsonian/a museum, they're just trying to get a sense of how many people would attend a virtual showing, and since they have sold out, perhaps they are limited in terms of whatever they may have spent to be an official venue for these classic movies. Anyway, check them out, perhaps there are seats left: https://watch.eventive.org/satoshikon

So, that's been kind of fun.

The other thing I've been doing is finally going through a box of junk that I got as part of a stamp collection someone gave away on our neighborhood Buy Nothing group. I say junk, but it's basically a box full of envelopes with stamps on them. The stamps are all of one kind, so I am currently just harvesting them off the envelopes for eventual resale. But, occasionally, there are envelopes that have not been entirely stripped of their contents. The most interesting thing that I've found so far is a Japanese Government-Issued Peso, which was a fiat bill that was produced during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in WWII. This one is very specifically a 1942 issued ten centavos. 

A Japanese peso
Image: WEIRD bit of history found in a box of worthless stamps

I was a bit disappointed, after having read the Wikipedia article about these, that this one was not one of the counterfeit bills that the United State government printed in an attempt to destabilize Japan's occupying force. Apparently, those had specific letters printed on them and/or were actually overlaid with propaganda (and then dumped by the bucketful out of airplanes, holy shit)!  

Anyway, I also found a few letters home from 1889, of which only one is interesting because it is clearly in response to an accusation by this person's mother, who is convinced that son(?) talked dad out of an extra $200 loan (on top of the THOUSAND dad had already given him!!) What I found most amusing was the overuse of underlining, which of course made me imagine the whole thing as an ALL CAP email. :-)

The more things change, right?

Okay, I'm off. Hope you all are doing well!
lydamorehouse: (ichigo irritated)
My online course that I thought was cancelled spontaneously generated four more students, so I am up and running today.

Already, I have two students with assignments pending. They are waiting for at least two more people to post and then they will be able to critique each other. I am already wondering how I can view their assignments, but I suspect that half of this first week will be a little like the first twenty minutes of a Zoom call where everyone tries to figure out how their mic works.... I mean, major learning curve for me since I've never used this particular program before in my life.

I will complain a lot, but I love this stuff? So, just ignore me for the most part.

Because I had thought that class was cancelled, I actually never entirely finished populating the lessons. In some ways, that's good. I can use those empty spaces to be flexible and add things as they come up in class... BUT, they terrify me, also, since I'm not actually that great at writing down the lectures? I'm much better winging it in-person???

To sum up: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Oh! But I do have a few things I can post about what I've been reading because I was catching up on some more short stories with an eye for upcoming lessons this last few days:

In my continued exploration of international science fiction, I've been watching a bunch of short films.

  • "Intoxicant," directed by John Hsu / co-written with Duff Chung-Pu Hsiao, 35 minutes, (2008) https://www.viddsee.com/video/intoxicant/, 35 m, a Taiwanese short film about a online forum. The coolest part of this short film to me is the way Hsu envisioned the forum? It's kind of hard to explain, but it involves live action in a very early cyberpunk way? If you've got a free half hour, it is a fun watch. There are subtitles.
  • Welcome to Earth, written and directed by by Daan van 't Einde, 18 minutes, (2019) https://youtu.be/Nen6uu4IlW4 This is a short film from the Netherlands which is about humanity's extinction, with a twist. Mostly in English, with a few subtitles.

The short stories I read this last week were:
  • “Change of Life,” by K. Tempest Bradfort (Podcastle, May 2019)
  • “Damage” by David Levine (Tor.com, Jan. 2015)
  • “Hungry Daughters or Starving Mothers,” by Alyssa Wong (Nightmare, Oct. 2015)
  • “Today I am Paul,” by Martin L. Shoemaker (Clarkesworld, August 2015)
  • “Non-Zero Probabilities,” by N. K. Jemisin (Clarkesworld, Sept. 2009)

I'm sure you'll be getting similar lists from me from now on until class is over. The thing about the short stories is that I'm just going to be combing through the past Nebula nominees for stories (and then I will probably start branching off to other awards) that are good representation of things like plot, character, pacing, theme, etc., that are available on-line and that (where possible) have a podcasted option.

The short films are just things I'm offering to my students as fun ways to see what the rest of the world is doing with science fiction. 
lydamorehouse: (Default)
 I got an email from my contact over at the Loft.

So far, they have exactly ONE student signed up for my SF/F class that starts at the end of this month. It's called The Final Frontier: Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy in the Modern Era. It's the same class I always teach, but the Loft does these "themes" and this year it's "Boundaries & Borders." At any rate, I'd love to teach again this year, so if you know anyone who could make it to a class in Minneapolis and would like to learn from me, please pass this on to them. I will be the first to agree that the price is steep, but the Loft does offer scholarships to at least one of the attendees, so that could be you (or your friend).  Just be sure to ask for a scholarship application. 

Otherwise, my life continues apace. 

My family spent the weekend mostly chilling out, though Mason ended up having to go to robotics on Saturday. Normally, he would have been at work, but his KAYSC team decided not to make anyone come in because of the snow storm. We were predicted to get anywhere from 6 to 12 inches, but we probably only got 6. Nothing to write home about, alas, but Mason's work cancelled the night before, so as to give people time to make other arrangements and whatnot. Mason was really looking forward to sleeping in and having a pajama day, when his robotic's folks texted with the "Are you coming in???" messages. He was VERY unhappy, but also felt like he couldn't say 'no,' since with his college class schedule and work, he doesn't make it to robotics very often.

Sunday, Mason spent most of the day with his friend Dalton.

Monday, there was more robotics. He told me this morning that he was weirdly happy to be getting back to his regular schedule because all this social stuff was wearing out my little introvert. I sympathized, because, even though I'm extroverted by nature, my introverted family has taught me the value of spending a weekend (or longer) doing absolutely nothing.

For Shawn and I, the three day weekend was pretty relaxing. We finally got around to seeing "Inception," which I am surprised to say that I feel dumb for not having seen before now. What a good film! What excellent science fiction!  We also watched the first "John Wick," which was... a lot of shooting. In fact, I got kind of tired of the violence? Also, for some weird reason, I'd gotten it into my head that the franchise involved magic? Like, I don't know why I thought that? Maybe I just thought a guy named John Wick sounded like he should be a magical boi/wizard, and, at any rate, I am here to tell you I AM VERY DISAPPOINT. All guns, no spells makes John Wick a very dull movie! 

Otherwise, I did a little "stamping" and a lot of fic writing. 

Shawn did a bunch of cutting, sewing, and looming. 

All around a good weekend, I'd say. I can't believe it's Tuesday already, however. That part's crazy. 
lydamorehouse: (crazy eyed Renji)
The temperatures here in Minnesota have returned to something resembling average for this time of year, so when I took Shawn in to work this morning around 7am, it was -1 F / -18 C. And, for whatever reason, I really felt the cold, too, you know what I mean?

When my barista asked me how I was doing today, I said "cold," but he heard "old" and we had a laugh about how: yes. As the kids would say, "Same energy."

Speaking of what the kids would say, I was surprised to discover that my barista who says thirty is still some distance from him had NEVER heard of the French foreign legion. I mentioned it in the context of "things people used to say when they were planning on running away from it all, ala, 'I'm going to run off and join the circus.'" Which, of course, also made NO SENSE to this young man because circuses do not come to town any more. I then spent several moments trying to figure out what "kids these days" would say when they want to pick a universally understood place of escape from it all. Do people still say, "run off to the country/the big city," maybe? I have no idea. Anyone out there think they might know?

As it is also Wednesday, I will tell you that the big thing I read over this last week was all six VERY THICK volumes of Akira by Otomo Katsuhiro. "Akira" (the movie) was one of the first things that made me sit up and say, "Wow, what is this anime thing you speak of?! I must consume all of it," back when we actually had not yet borrowed the word anime from Japanese into English and instead awkwardly called this style of visual media "Japanimation" (which looks fine, until you say it out loud.)

At any rate, I saw the film when it was first imported to the US in the early 1990s at the Uptown theater (where I also saw my first Lupin III film, "Castle of Cagliostro" as they did a run of the early imports.)  I was enough into it that at one point I went to the trouble to get a video tape copy of "Akira" imported from Japan at great expense and hassle.  Yet, somehow, I had not read the manga until just yesterday. I'd heard that it was much longer and more detailed, I did not realize the extent to which the manga is almost a completely different story, not unlike how Kubrick's "The Shining" is both completely nothing like but is also yet the story of Stephen King's The Shining.  I mean, the vibe is the same and there are even moments in the manga that are almost the same, but it's... well, for one, the movie of "Akira" stops at volume 3--though the final resolution is tacked on.  

There are some parts of the manga that I totally get why they were skipped. The manga destroys Neo-Tokyo more times than is strictly necessary and the Americans invade at some point (awkward considering how soon after WWII this was written) and several new "nations" are formed under various psychic cult leaders. I mean, yeah, it's fine that the movie chose to condense all this stuff. honestly. But, I will say that Kaneda (arguably the main character, since he has the most agency, though most of the plot happens to Tetsuo) is shockingly more unlikable to start and shockingly more likable by the end. I guess that's what happens when you have several extra hundred some pages to develop character.

Anyway, I unearthed my replacement DVD and tried to rewatch the movie... and I got half way through to the trippy nursery stuff and quit. Partly because I found the music/background sounds really difficult to listen to.

None of this means anything if you've never seen "Akira" or read Akira, but that's what I've been reading.

My library had a manga I simply HAD to pick up, as the joke is too good. If you're a manga or anime fan you probably know that the sound cats make in Japan is "nyan." You also may (or may not, since I only learned this last year) know that "yankee" is the term for delinquent. So, what do you imagine a manga call, wait for it, Nyankees might be about?

Yeah! It really is!

It's a manga about delinquents who you first "see" as tough guys, but who are quickly revealed to actually be alley cats. I... simply HAD to pick that up. I'm going to read it next. 

I also decided to make 2020 the year of manga classics, so I'm going to read Dogs next and then maybe move on to the full volume set of Astro Boy.

Did you read anything fun this week?

lydamorehouse: (cap and flag)
Things I can say above the cut: it's worth seeing, IMHO, for one singular cinematic moment. In the theater, when we saw it, people almost jumped out of their seats, but literally all yelled, "YES!"

So, they gave us something good.

Now, about the rest:

So, so many spoilers... here there be dragons )

So, there are things I liked quite a bit. I'm going to die mad about others.





lydamorehouse: (Default)
Though not by too many days!

Hello, hello! How's things? I don't have a huge amount to report. Friday was the day of forgetting things. I was just leaving the coffee shop when I got a text from Mason. He forgot his iPad at home. So, I headed home, picked it up, and then went back to school. As I was half way to school, he wanted to know if I could also grab earbuds? But I didn't get that in time to double back. I left his iPad with the school but then remembered we might have earbuds in the car, so I quick texted Mason to come back and grab them. He'd already headed back, but was able to turn around. That was all before 8 am!

Then, when I was getting ready to go to the coffee shop, I got a call from some guy trying to sell us on a paint job that made me unreasonably angry for various reasons, and I was so wound up about that that I brought my cord to the coffee shop, but forgot my laptop. I think that worked out okay, however, because it meant I was less distracted during the conversation we had about a story that [personal profile] naomikritzer was writing, which opened up a lot of interesting questions to me (none of which she was actually writing about, but hey) like: what's it like to know you're related to a criminal or a murderer (which I am) and any number of similarly fascinating philosophical questions.

What else... oh! Shawn finally watched "Infinity War" and we all saw "Solo." We ended up doing two movies because "Infinity War" was such a downer AND I had earlier tilted during a game of "Trivial Pursuit" that spilled over into another little snip. "Solo" was just what the doctor order. Y'all think it sucked, but I thought it was fine--entertaining, even.

Saturday Mason worked and I had my first session of a new Star Trek RPG game with a bunch of friends: [personal profile] jiawen [personal profile] bcholmes John T., and Sabs. MUCH FUN. As I've said earlier, I haven't role-played for some time and I had so much fun I ended up writing fan fic (in the form of my character's personal log) about our adventure.

Sunday we spent the day hanging out. Mason had an in-person D&D game, Shawn made a disastrous pie (it was a cannoli pie). Shawn notes that the "Idea" of the pie was good, but the flavor didn't suit us (me less than her). I did a lot of stamping, which I enjoyed.

This morning I woke and chatted a bit more with [personal profile] jiawen about life and the super, blood, wolf moon eclipse. Most of which I missed, because I CAN NOT with the late nights now that I'm old. (Shut up. 11 pm is late for me, okay??) Anyway, chatting with [personal profile] jiawen always fun, we can talk about anything for hours.

Then I did a lot of cooking. I tried to make cheesy puffy ball bread things, but they collapse. They were tasty though!

my sad cheese things

Very much like eggy popovers, which was fine since we ate them with lunch (spaghetti) with a hot marinara sauce dip.

Then we decided to have a big chicken roast, so I started roasting the bird around 1:30 pm, made mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts, corn, cheddar bay biscuits (from a box), and chicken gravy. I managed the timing pretty darn perfectly, if I do say so myself, and the meal was a huge success.

So. LOTS of food today.

I managed to mostly keep up with my spells over the intervening days. I will give you a series of quick updates under the cut. I will note that I did spend the day after the DOWN THE DRAIN money spell, undoing it, and decided that was enough of a spell-of-the-day for that day, since it was supposed to be a day to get rid of something.

Spell-a-Day Project (Jan 18 & 19) )


Spell-a-Day (Jan 20) )
lydamorehouse: (crazy eyed Renji)
On Saturday, after taking Mason to work, Shawn and I decided to check out the ReUse Center of the University of Minnesota. That place is kind of a trip. Check out all the--I assume, abandoned--bicycles

an ungodly number of bicycles hanging from an industrial ceiling

There were all sorts of other things, too, like all the weird old science equipment that a mad scientist might want:

microscopes

And, of course, books that had been culled from the University libraries:

books!

We didn't find anything to take home, alas, but it was really fun to see all the stuff. We had much better luck at our earlier thrifting spot, GoodWill. Shawn found a few baskets, including a big wicker basket for laundry (something she always covets.) Also, she found more of a set of dishes that we'd picked up earlier. We swear that GoodWill has the whole set, but it only putting out a few pieces at a time.

So, while the rest of you fools are decluttering, Shawn and I are digging through your castaways.

Why? Because it brings us joy.

Saturday was actually a very good day all around. Mason came back from work and we had a lovely dinner. Shawn and I watched "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" (2018) which we had on DVD from Netflix (because we still get DVDs from Netflix.) I... didn't hate it? Shawn seemed to enjoy it, but woke up this morning to inform me that she'd had epiphany: "They should stop making sequels of these." I mean, she's not wrong? But, as I pointed out, DINOSAURS. Like, how else are we going to get a dinosaur movie in the future? Pretty much anything you do is going to seem like a rip off the Jurassic franchise. So, let them keep making them? I honestly love any movie where I can root for the dinosaurs. But, I will say that "Fallen Kingdom" had some moments that made me VERY SAD. Spoiler )

But, at the end of the evening, Shawn turned to me and said, "This was actually a *good* day." I had to agree.

Today, Sunday, was pretty good, too. We didn't do a lot, played Smash and hung out. I've been writing a lot of fan fic, some of which I posted today.  Then, we were going to have pot stickers for dinner tonight, but Mason's GF had to cancel last minute, and so we randomly decided to have fried chicken fingers and onion strips a meal we make while literally sitting in front of the deep fat frier.  Such a terrible meal. SO GOOD.  

I still need to do my spell of the day tonight, but, otherwise, I'd say it was a lovely weekend. 

How've you been?
lydamorehouse: (cap and flag)
I think Marvel is taking a huge risk with "Avengers: Infinity War," splitting the story into two movies, a year apart... especially given That Ending.

A friend of mine who was surprised that my non-spoiler review on Facebook was a simple: "Remember this is Part ONE, everyone," was an indignant, "what was it like at the end of 'Empire Strikes Back' for people, then?" I said, "Since I was THERE, I can tell you, the screen went black and people started murmuring and then they flashed a giant TO BE CONTINUED."

"Infinity Wars" didn't have a 'To Be Continued."

"Infinity Wars" has only one after show teaser and if you don't understand everything that there is to know about the Marvel Universe, it could seem like the only point of that is a teaser for a new movie character (if you even get that out of it). Read more... )

Funny story about that, in the theatre I went to (which was mostly deserted, though we weren't the ONLY people there) I got super excited by that teaser and was the only person who shouted "WAAAAAH!" and when I realized I was the only person to have that reaction I said, "That means THIS THING (see spoiler cut above--or not)," and I got at least one sincere, "Oh. Thank you!"

So, I worry that there's no sense of hope.

I worry that there's too much time between Part 1 and Part 2 and that fandom will all have written a much better ending than what they'll end up getting in Part 2.

And, then there's this: a friend of mine at work, a librarian who is biracial, told me that she'd been warned off the film because it might "make black children cry."

Ummm... well, maybe?minor spoiler which maybe you don't know? )Also? We're talking about five minutes and the rest of the film is WONDERFUL and I'm really afraid that people aren't going to see it because of various warnings about That Ending.

So, I don't know. I mean, I LOVE, loved it for all of the bits in between. (Most of them anyway. genuine spoiler )

But, I mean, ultimately, I felt those were minor things.

All the kid lit shippers should die happy.

lydamorehouse: (swoon)
Robotics is coming to a close. Tonight, in fact, is the last night for building. Mason's team has until midnight Eastern Time (11 pm for us) to finish tinkering with their robot. After that, they have to shrink-wrap it and put it away until competition. I have no idea when I'll see my child tonight. I suspect the Washington team will go as late as possible (and my son will LOVE every minute of it.)

Luckily, he got to bed early last night.

And Shawn and I get a mid-week date night, so that works out pretty well. I suspect we'll catch up with "Victoria" and eat a lot of popcorn. Who says romance is dead?

Speaking of movies, I saw two this weekend. You'll never guess what the first one was.... yeah, actually, it WAS "Black Panther." My Marvel crew is always on top of things, so Mr. Murphy got tickets a week ahead, which was good because theaters were selling out. I had work at Maplewood from 10 am to 5 pm, and so I joked to Mason (who had spent from 8 am to 3 pm at "Week Zero" robotics, where they test their robot against the obstacle course for the first time) that both of us would be lucky to keep our eyes open. Hahahahahaha, yeah. No worries there. "Black Panther" was amazing. I don't have much to say about it that hasn't already been said, but I will add my voice to the chorus that recommends you to go, if you haven't already.

The other movie we watched was "The Great Wall." When Mason noticed us watching it he snarkily said, "Oh, I see, we're having the complete opposite experience from 'Black Panther' now, eh?" [If you're curious about the controversy around "The Great Wall" and somehow missed hearing about it when people were discussing it, Huffington Post pretty much sums up my argument about the movie: "No, 'The Great Wall' Isn't Racist Whitewashing (but The Question if it is a White Savior Movie is a Bit Tricker.)"]

What these two movies had in common was kind of surprising. Somehow, I missed that "The Great Wall" was a fantasy, where the Great Wall of China was kind like Wakanda in that it was fantastically science-fictionally advanced... the ancient China we want, full of amazing costumes, beautiful people, impossible heroics and acrobatics, and super-powered monsters.

Of course, in "Black Panther" the white people were superfluous to the plot (Tineey-tiny spoiler )), and the 'monster' was actually one of the more sympathetic characters who actually brought with him a legitimate conflict with real world implications.

It was an interesting double-feature, though, given the controversy around "The Great Wall."

I am not, by the way, recommending "The Great Wall." I found it to be somewhat vacuous, if pretty. The only thing going for it is that it very much had the vibe of a SUPER big budget version of a Hong Kong film, ala "Once Upon a Time in China" or "The Bride With White Hair" but with the annoying addition of Matt Damon. I can see why people cried "whitewashing," actually, because even though 8 out of 10 actors were Chinese, Damon's role is OBVIOUSLY the sort normally occupied by someone like Jet Li. It's kind of weird to see a white guy get the slo-mo slides and off-the-wall jumps, while shooting arrows... that's clearly supposed to be Li or Chow Yun Fat or Jackie Chan or Brigitte Lin or Michelle Yeoh.

So, I mean, "The Great Wall" and "Black Panther" both had the same number of white actors (3), were directed by PoCs, but one of these movies is a giant ball of Fail (at least in the US market. I have no idea how "The Great Wall" played in China. Okay, quick check reveals that Wikipedia says, "The film went on to gross $170.9 million at the Chinese box office, which is considered a disappointment.")

It was an interesting movie weekend.  The rest was same old, same old, I suppose.  I hinted at the fact that I worked at Maplewood on Saturday. That was another full day, but, wow, it was so much nicer to be at a place that respected my work. It went so much faster, despite being the same 7 hours. I also, because it's Maplewood, came home with a new manga series, which I read the first two volumes of last night called: The Girl From the Other Side / Totsukuni no Shoujo by Nagabe.  It's very "spoopy" as the kids might say.  I'm probably going to write up a review of it later today.

I guess that's me. You?
lydamorehouse: (??!!)
As I've said on Facebook, I have absolutely no idea why critics and fans are hating on this movie.

The criticisms, as I understand them, are: "Rey is a Mary Sue," "Luke Wouldn't," "Leia Can't," and "It's Messy." Let me try to tackle these, in order, from my point of view.

1. "Rey is a Mary Sue."

Why This is a Sexist Argument )

2."Luke Wouldn't."

Luke Was Never Who You Thought He Was )

3. "Leia Can't."

Okay, You Can Have This One, Haters, But I Liked It )

4. "It was a mess."

Yes, True, but No More Than Any Previous Star Wars Film )

The rest? I'm not going to tackle arguments that the Porgs are stupid. If you didn't like them, that's fine. But, don't act like it's the end of the world. No one liked the Ewoks, either, and somehow Star Wars survived their inclusion. At least the Porgs were just window dressing and weren't actually important elements of the plot.

The complaints that Kylo Ren is a waste of space? I got nothing. You like him or you don't. (I happen to have been a fan from the VERY FIRST moment that he stopped a blaster shot mid-air.) But he's always had his detractors. That's life. IMHO, Ren is still miles above Jar-Jar Binks. At least Ren isn't a walking racial stereotype.

Edited to add, okay, Haters, you like this one, too, so I'm going to blow it up.

5. "It's just a retread of the original series."

The Actual Word You're Looking for is HOMAGE )
lydamorehouse: (cap and flag)
In reverse order.

Saint Paul has a lot of panhandlers. They tend to congregate at busy intersections. They're not as aggressive here as I am led to believe they are in other cities. No one runs out and tries to wash your window or anything like that. They just hold up various signs and attempt to figure out the right amount of eye-contact/no eye-contact that will illicit sympathy from Minnesotan drivers.*

Despite living here for over 30 years, I always fail this. I'm forever looking people in the eye. I compensate for this failure by smiling a lot. I figure if I've made accidental awkward contact, I might as well be pleasant about it. So, I'm looking out my window and I catch the eye of one of these panhandlers. He smiles broadly back at me and lifts his sign, which reads: "I bet you a buck you'll read this sign."

I laugh and reach for my wallet, because, yeah, okay, that's clever.

As I'm reaching, he excitedly runs back to his backpack and pulls out a carefully plastic wrapped pile of papers. When he takes my dollar bill, he hands me a sheet. "I'm a published poet," he tells us. "I'm going to have a reading one day. That's why I'm doing this." What can I say? I mean, I know a lot of poets, many of them professional, and it is not an easy life. Even really successful poets who try to only do poetry have a hard time making ends meet. So I take the poem with another sympathetic smile and say, "Good luck to you, my friend." He waves happily and goes back to his poetry spreading panhandling.

His poem is called "Real Love." His pen name appears to be BC the Black Clown.

"Ain't it sad?
So many people go through life
Never really feeling loved
Because when they open their heart
It gets crushed by the very one
That they gave their heart to
And ain't that sad?
That the amount of life that is received
Is often measured by
The amount of money given
The quality of the stability and comfort
And the degree of physical pleasures
Ain't that sad?"

It goes on in this fashion until it turns religious.... because, of course, you know who gives the perfect love? JE-sus.

I mean, I'm sure there's actually a place for religious poets, and I don't regret the dollar I gave him. Not only was his sign clever, but I paid a poet probably a better $/per word than they'd get trying to sell to a print or e-magazine.

The other big excitement of the day was going off with my usual Marvel crew to go see THOR: RAGNAROK. Eleanor, who hasn't seen Mason in several months, noted that his voice had dropped. Puberty is a thing, for sure, and Mason is getting hit hard all of a sudden. We also all noticed that Mason is now taller than Mr. Murphy**, by at least an inch.

Murphy bought us tickets at the AMC in Inver Grove Heights (the place I was supposed to see BLADE RUNER 2049, only ended up at the wrong comfy theater.) They have the reclining seats, which is nice, and assigned seating, which I find annoying, because inevitably people end up getting bunched together. I was knee-to-knee with a stranger, despite the fact that the row beneath us was empty. But, I couldn't let Eleanor, the introvert sit next to the strangers. That would be bad extrovert-to-introvert etiquette.*** If I'd thought of it, I'd have made Eleanor and Murphy switch once it was clear no one was going to be sitting between Murphy and the aisle. I only say this, because I predict now that Eleanor will not have liked this movie as much as she might have if she didn't have to sit surrounded by people (even friends. Since I have an introvert at home, I know how to care and feed introverts. Even having to sit that close to people she LIKES wears on Eleanor.)

We got to see some interesting previews. Of the ones I saw, I was most excited to see the new BLACK PANTHER movie. I was not super enthused by Ta-Nehisi Coates' Black Panther: Nation Under Our Feet when I read it, but I was excited to see that movie seems to be following the visual aesthetic of the comic book. The Shield Maidens, in particular, look bada$$.

As a fan of the first PACIFIC RIM, I was equally thrilled to see the sequel's preview, as well, of course, as the newest STAR WARS (I'm one of three people who actually LIKE the character of Kylo Ren, so I'm perfectly down for a movie that features more Kylo character moments.) The one preview that I think I was intrigued by that no one else in my set seemed that interested in was Matt Damon's DOWNSIZED. It looks... I mean, yeah, it totally vibes like a Stepford Wives cross with Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, and I would NOT want to spend the outrageous movie ticket prices to see it first run, but I would totally Netflix it, if you know what I mean.

And then the movie.

I'm not going to spoil it at all (except a little bit under the cuts), so suffice to say that the humorous tone of the previews you've seen? It's that, all the way down. I personally did not mind the lighter tone. I'm not sure how a character like the Grandmaster would play (pardon the pun) if he was plunked into a movie that took itself even moderately seriously. HOWEVER, there are moments in THOR: Ragnarok that probably needed more there THERE.

Unless you're an Incredible Hulk fan, in which case this movie was 100% perfect for you. The Hulk gets, by far, the most poignant scenes (which given some of what transpires in Thor's life, and how complex his relationship SHOULD BE with his half-brother**** is a little... imbalanced?).

I have a friend, Rob Callahan, who had a brilliant take on the MCU franchise. He pointed out that each of the Marvel movies are kind of their own genres: you've got the war buddy film (Captain America), the melodrama (Thor), the industrial action flick (Iron Man), the heist (Ant Man), the space opera (Guardians of the Galaxy), and now, if you follow his point,... for some inexplicable reason you have fantasy comedy ala Princess Bride, (Thor: Raganrok.)

I'll be curious to know what the fan writer community thinks of this new addition to canon. Minor character moment spoilers, but several of them, so read at your own risk )

All and all, though, my complaints are minor.  Once you surrender to the tone, THOR: RAGNAROK is a fun film. The fight scenes always give this old Marvel fan a thrill because I can so easily picture the still framed panels they came directly out of.  

Speaking of that, I suspect one of the reasons that, of my group, I had less trouble with the tone of this particular movie is because it very much reminded me of some of the comic books I read Mason (particularly the All Ages+ of Fantastic Four) in the early-2000s, like "Fantastic Four: Doom, Where's My Car" and some of the more cheesy stuff that came out of the Chris Claremont era.*****

I used to read all that Grandmaster crap in the 1970s, and it was all like this. Only, I mostly ran across him in FF, so Reed Richards would outsmart the "games," but basically this is al that, plus a giant helping of "VERSUS" titles.  Do you remember those?  I think that's what they were called--but they'd always be these one shots Hulk vs. Wolverine! etc., etc., where the writers would contrive some scenario to make our heroes fight each other just to play the "who would win" game.  

The ways in which comic book canon is like a giant fan fiction community are, in point of fact, indistinguishable.


______
*Many Minnesotans are weird about eye contact. I say this as a transplant, who has lived here for 30+ years, and who has yet to figure out what the proper ratio of direct eye contact and "glance away" to use to make my colleagues comfortable in my presence. This is especially tricky when you're trying to sell people something, like, say, a book you've written.

**Sean. I would call him this, but as my wife is also named Shawn, we have gotten in the habit over the years of calling Sean "Mr. Murphy."

***It is my solemn belief that extroverts exist to spare introverts from certain things: phone calls, in-person sales people, pizza deliverer, and to act as HUMAN SHIELDS in crowds or at the occasional party that you've managed to drag your introverted friend / partner to.

****Fight me. Loki was always HALF-brother to Thor in comic book canon and this insistence on "adoptive" is bull CRAP. Though, I understand the need given fandom, but, darlings, adoptive or not they were still raised together so y'all better be warning for incest. Related Thor: Ragnarok minor spoiler )

*****Double plus fight me. Before you get on your high horse, let me remind you that Claremont is responsible of the X-Babies.  'Nuff said.

Nerd Day

Sep. 29th, 2017 12:52 pm
lydamorehouse: (ticked off Ichigo)
 Today, as I'm sure many of you know, the Nintendo dropped the SNES.  I spent a good portion of my morning attempting to get one, always arriving as the cashier said, "Sorry, my last one just walked out the door." The worst part being that I could have stood in line at GameStop, which opened later, BUT I had a press showing of Professor Marston and the Wonder Woman to get to at 10 am at the Lagoon Theatre, which I got to go to as part of my gig as a comic book reviewer for Twin Cities Geeks.

I can't talk about the movie until my review goes up, but I can tell you about my movie-going experience.  

At first, I didn't think I was going to make it. OMG. Lately traffic HATES ME, PERSONALLY. In between darting into various Target Superstores and Gamestops between here and Uptown, I managed to screw up my exit. Instead of taking 94 to Hennepin like I'd planned, I was thinking so hard about the SNES that I ended up on 35 W, which local folk will know, is under deep, deep construction.  The exit at 36th was blocked so I had to drive WAY OUT of my way at get off at 46th.  I managed work my way back, fighting Uptown traffic now, to park in the parking ramp behind the Lagoon (which ended up costing about as much as a ticket) and then it looked like no one was going to let me in to the actual theater. It was dark. The doors were locked.  But, eventually someone came and opened the door.  He still looked dubious about letting me in, but, apparently, the magic words were, "Press screening at 10?"

I checked in with the "woman with the clipboard" as instructed and was directed to theatre 5.  I haven't been to the Lagoon in forever. The theaters are small and dim. The seats are old and squeaky.

But it was just me and two other people...

...and that was really f*cking cool.

When I used to review movies for focusPOINT back in the late Cretaceous, I had a really hard time not loving everything I saw. I might be one of the only professional, paid reviewers on the planet who gave a positive review to the Matthew Broderick remake of Godzilla. Probably the thing most people remember about that movie, besides how (nearly) universally it was panned, was its poorly executed "Size Matters" ad campaign.

Anyway, part of the problem, I realized later when I found myself gushing about the Avengers remake (another film all my sensible colleagues panned, and I don't mean the Marvel one, obviously, I mean the one based on the TV series) is that it's just SO SUPER COOL to be the first to see a movie, ANY MOVIE, and it's free, right? So you don't have this whole "Jeez, I paid how much for THAT???!!" thing going on in your head, like, ever.

Plus, did I mention how super-secret you feel, getting in to somewhere no one else does? Way ahead of the official release date?  And, I realize there are people who do this for the Star Tribune, the New York Times or whatever and they've seen it all, and they're all so jaded, but even after a year of doing it for focusPOINT, I was like 'STILL AWESOME, SO, SO AWESOME. I LOVED THIS FILM, I LOVE ALL FILMS!!!"

Yeah, so, I'll have to remember to temper that impulse when I finally sit down to write my actual review.  

I drove home still attempting to find the SNES, but, at this point it was after noon, so all hope was lost.  At one Target they looked up to see who might have SNESs and I called around. The Roseville electronics department just answered the phone without even a hello, only saying, "We are sold out of the Super Nintendo Entertainment Systems." As sad as that was to hear, it still cracked me up.

Such a classic nerd day, though, don't you think?

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