With work, moving and other such life challenges, I've developed chronic case of non-bloggery. The causes of non-bloggery includes both a lack of free time, and a major lack of sleep, so writing anything of quality is unlikely. Believe when I say it's better this way for now.
In the meantime, please accept this humble link to the most amazing Medieval Podcast by Magnatune. I hope this long mp3 sampler of many styles, periods and cultures provides a lively soundtrack in lieu of the usual written word.
Winter is knocking on my door. My prediction of the first snow of the year was only off by two days. I really don't like winter, but it's much nicer to spend it in this area than where I used to live, in New England. On the plus side, it gives me an excuse to wear my Jayne hat.
Speaking of Firefly, there's been a huge growth in fans lately, which of course, translates to more websites and cool Firefly and Serenity things that can be found online. Oh, and Serenity also WON A HUGO AWARD on Saturday, August 26 at LA Con IV, the 64th World Science Fiction Convention. Here's the video of Morena Baccarin accepting the award, reading Joss Whedon's acceptance speech (PG -13 if you are worried about swear words).
Well, I had intended to embed THAT video into this post, but since that feature was disabled by the owner of the clip, I'm going to have to give you this one instead. Also because Nathan Fillion just asked me to 'please put this on the internet'. It's Joss Whedon and about half the Serenity cast at a stop on the Wizard World tour.
WOW- is this ever cool! Create your own Serenity ship from paper! The instructions are in Portuguese (I think), but the diagrams are good enough to figure out what you should be doing with all those pieces. You'll need a color printer, sharp scissors, glue and lots and lots of free time.
If you happen to be a PodCast junkie, you'll love The Signal and FireFlyTalk, two podcasts devoted to news of the 'verse. On both sites, you can click to listen now or dowload them for later.
If you'd rather listen to music, try some Filk. Oh, you thought that particular brand of songwriting was native only to the SCA? The Bedlam Bards, normally known for their Renaissance Fair performances are Browncoats!! They've written a filk of "Hero of Canton" and called it "The Creator of Firefly - the man they call Joss!" clicking this link opens an mp3 postcard, where you can get a FREE download of the song!
And FireFly Filk is a site with lyrics to many, many more great songs, but you'll have to do your own singin'.
I haven't figured out how to do a link into Second Life yet, but there's a a bunch of new Firefly/Serenity things going on in that virtual universe as well. Why, just the other day, I was able to walk through TWO different full size Serenity ships. You can now buy avatars that look like any of the cast, and there's a group of people trying to create a whole 'verse themed SIM.
All I can say is, you KNOW you've achieved cult status when people create a cookbook based on your story. Big Damn Chefs is about to publish The International Browncoat Charity Cookbook. Their collection of recipes submitted by fans from all over the world is huge. MMMM.... Livin' Legend Eggs, Special Hell Chili, Fruity Oaty Bars.... I'm gettin' hungry...
Well, I'm experimenting with a new format for my posts. If I've got more than one thing to talk about, I'll break it up into sections like this: ............................................................................... Movie review - Night Watch (2004) aka Nochnoi Dozor "A fantasy-thriller set in present-day Moscow where the respective forces that control daytime and nighttime do battle." - from IMDB.com
Well, the preview of Night Watch was great. Though the Mayan Theatre was a bit underprepared for the turnout.
After racing to Denver to arrive just in time to make it inside, we watched while every last seat in the house was filled. Then the market researcher made an announcement that if we filled out a short survey after the show, we'd get free movie schwag.
OK, so, the preview was free and now I'm getting free stuff, too? I like this movie already.
I had a couple of small technical issues with the flick, but on the whole I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. But it is NOT your typical vampire story. I guess I've never seen any Vampire pull out his own spine and fight with it, though.
The story was in Russian, subtitled in English. And the text effects on the subtitles were the coolest I'd ever seen. The look and feel of the movie is murky and the CG is great. It's a 'good vs. evil' story, but the distinction between good and evil isn't quite as concrete as we Americans usually go for. I will probably go see it again, and I hope it does well so that the sequels (which are apparently already shot) also have a chance in the theaters.
One of my favorite games when the credits roll is searching out the 'hard to pronounce' names, and saying them in funny accents. Well, this movie has tons of Russian names and the bad Russian accent I was trying out only made me want to drink a NostaRovia. (I've GOT to write about THAT drink soon...)
By the way, they were handing out stickers and posters after the show. I got a sticker, but so far have yet to find a large enough surface for it.
Hey, the modern and medieval are finally getting together and going bowling! (if that reference is lost on you, sorry, it comes from the 80's)
The Pain Bank is podcasting SCA topics from the Midrealm. You don't need an i-Pod to listen, just click the pod symbol next to his entries and your media player should do the rest. It sounds pretty rough now, but I bet if they get enough listeners, it would inspire them to keep at it.
Makes me almost tempted enough to start my own podcast. Almost. But if you think my writing is bad, wait 'til you hear my voice! ...............................................................................
Enough for now. Time to do my taxes online and commence with the general unhappiness of tax season. Huzzah!
While I was checking out the links page for my previous post about the RenFair Music awards, I noticed one of their favorite podcasts is The Signal - Firefly Podcast.
Now I haven't gotten myself quite up to speed yet with all this new technology that seems to arrive whenever I have no money at all, but I keep hearing that Podcasts are pretty cool.
I suppose I don't REALLY need an I-Pod to listen, but being one of the two people on this rock that didn't get an I-Pod for Christmas makes me feel a bit jealous. I guess I'll have to make do with simply donwloading them all to my hard drive.
I did get Serenity on DVD as a Christmas present though (Thanks, Todd!) and managed to find the easter egg - The Fruity Oaty Bar commercial, and a bit of explanation about it by Joss Whedon.
To find the easter egg, load the DVD, and wait for the menu to appear in engllish. There will be two arcs on the right and left sides of the screen, which both have circles in the centers. From "Play", hit your left arrow button on your remote and the circle on the right arc should light up.
And after you've gotten that song stuck in your head like the rest of us, show your support by wearing some Fruity Oaty Bar schwag!
